The Kiss Of A Spirit
by BlueBelle Author 1600
Summary: After being kicked out of foster care, high school student Frida Suarez is now homeless and not sure where to go. Until she unknowingly helps the spirit of the south and ends up taking his place while getting saddled with his rebellious familiar Manny a tiger nagual who's not too happy about the exchange.
1. Chapter 1

1523

The world around him was getting darker and it was spinning. He was finding it harder and harder to stay awake, he knew that once lost consciousness he would die but he didn't care. He didn't care because his heart was breaking. The woman he loved had left him to marry another man and now he would die of a broken heart.

"What happened to you?" A gentle voice asked him.

"I'm dying." He spoke weakly.

"Why?"

"Because I gave up everything for the woman I loved."

"Who was she?"

"She told me her name was Cristina and that one day she would marry me so I made a contract to become human so we could be together but she married another man now I must die."

"I see well I don't think now would be a good time for you to die."

The kind man leaned over and offered him his hand.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to help you, just trust me."

...

2012

High school student Frida Suarez, a lively beauty with a strong spirit but unfortunately darling Frida lost her family to a car accident when she was very young forcing her to stay in foster care and her foster parents didn't really like her that much nor did they take good care of her. However she managed to find a way to stay optimistic and happy that is until her eighteenth birthday came to pass and since legally she was no longer a child her foster parents kicked her out, and didn't give her any money or any means of living. Oh sad the poor girl has to live on the streets with nothing. How will she survive? Now don't worry this isn't going to be a depressing story, it's a proper romantic comedy. Prepare to enjoy the thrills and chills til the very end.

"How can those jerks do this to me?!" Frida groaned as she sat alone in the park with her suit case. "This sucks! Not only do those jerks treat me like garbage for thirteen years but now they just dump me with nothing! Ugh! I am so teepeeing their house for this!"

"Someone help!" She heard a voice call. She followed the call to find a man sitting up in a tree and at the bottom of the tree was a dog barking at him. The poor man looked scared out of his mind. "Excuse me young lady but could you please get that dog away from me?!"

The dog wasn't big, in fact it was a harmless, over excited, chihuahua. She didn't understand what was it about the dog that frightened him so much. But she didn't want that poor man to spend the whole night stuck in a tree.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go on now!" She told the dog shooing it away. She then went to help the man out of tree.

"You okay?"

"Yes. Thank you young lady." He said. "I apologize for making such a fuss but where I come from I'm not used to seeing dogs."

"Where are you from?"

"Oh here, there, everywhere."

"Oh so you're homeless too huh?"

"Oh no I'm no I have a home it's just that right now I prefer to do a little traveling. I haven't introduced myself yet have I? Call me Mr. Tonio.

"Frida, Frida Suarez. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise so you mentioned something about being homeless?"

She ended up telling him the whole story of her situation.

"Oh that's terrible."

"Yeah what really sucks is that I still have to attend school so I can't really get a job yet. I mean I could try but right now I need to find a place to crash. I guess I could try the shelter but I hear those places are way unsanitary."

"You can live at my place if you'd like. I'm still traveling so I won't be living there for quite a while but if you need a place to stay be my guest."

"For real?"

"Yes, you'll be the new lady and mistress." He then planted a kiss on her forehead and handed her a small slip of paper. "Follow these instructions and you'll be able to find it in no time."

"Okay."

But the house wasn't exactly what she expected. In truth it looked run down and abandoned.

"I got played." She groaned. "Unbelievable! This is just- Ugh! Why me? Why God? What was my crime? What did I do to deserve this?"

She started to head home when lights flashed on.

"Lord Tonio?"

She heard a voice say.

"Welcome home Lord Tonio." Another voice said.

She then felt herself being pulled into the house and landed at someone's feet. Looking up she saw that the feet belonged to a young man who looked very unusual. At first glance he seemed like a normal human, in fact he looked to be about the same age as she was and he seemed very handsome too. In fact Frida thought that he was the most handsome man she had ever seen but he had several appendages that were definitely not on the average human boy. He had tiger ears, a tiger's tail, fingernails that were long enough to be claws, and teeth sharp enough to be fangs. He wore only black pants and a brown jacket that looked like something a warrior would wear.

"Welcome back though I can't say it will be warm." He said giving her face that was a mixture of smug and rage. "I mean you left me alone for twenty years so naturally I'm very pissed!"

He bared his fangs and cracked his knuckles.

"Die you fiend!"

He lunged for her, Frida screamed and waited for the blow but much to her relief he stopped. His brown eyes scanned her body and face, studying her carefully. This wasn't Tonio it was a young woman. Or was it? He knew spirits could change their forms so maybe this was a disgusie. He took some of her hair into his hand and brought it up to sniff. Nope this woman's scent was totally different from Tonio's.

"Excuse me but could you stop smelling my hair? It's a little creepy." She said pulling her hair out of his hand.

"Pablo, Tia, you made a mistake this is not Tonio." The young man growled disappointed.

Poof! Two figures appeared. One was a short, floating little man and the other was a short, floating little woman.

"Oh it's no mistake the mark of the South Spirit is on her forehead." The woman said pointing to Frida's forehead.

"That doesn't make him her!"

"Um...Could someone please explain to me what the heck is going on here?" Frida asked.

"Oh how rude of us. Please allow us to introduce ourselves." The little man said. "I am Pablo and this is Tia we are Aluxes, spirites who protect the South Spirit's domain. This young man is Manny Rivera a tiger nagual."

"A what? Hang on what exactly is happening here?"

"Well young lady you have now become the new spirit of the south, it happened right after Tonio kissed you meaning Tia and I serve you and Manny is your familiar." Pablo said.

"My what?"

"Like hell I'm her familiar!" Manny said. "This thing cannot possibly be the new south spirit!"

"Now just calm down dude. Wait a minute thing?"

He grabbed her by the chin and once again began studying her face. He thought for a moment that maybe looking at this situation the wrong way. Maybe this woman had some sort of spiritual power but he could sense that aside from what Tonio gave her she had none. Not to mention she looked very poor and had a few scratches and bruises here and there. She looked like that she had been roughed up a bit somewhere.

"What could a pathetic looking thing like her even do? By the looks of it I'd say this thing is clumsy, stupid, and quite chubby. Throw her out!"

"Chubby?! Hey! You're being awfully high and mighty and rude to me for no reason!"

"And look at the size of this thing's mouth."

"Hey what's with this referring to me as a thing? I'm not a thing I'm a person! And I have a name it's Frida Suarez."

"Don't care. Anyway whatever you are I refuse to serve the likes of you. I am Tonio's familiar not yours so if you'll excuse me I'm leaving." And just like that he was gone.

"What a jerk! I wouldn't want him as my familiar anyway. Whatever that is. So shorties what exactly did he mean by south spirit."

"Well Miss Suarez are you aware of the legends and myths of spirits, demons, monsters, and other creatures?" Pablo asked.

"Yeah I learned about them in history class."

"The man you spoke with was none otherthan Lord Tonio the great spirit of the south and it would seem that he has bestowed his great power onto you."

"Me?"

"Yep so as of now you are the new south spirit."

"Okay that's a little bizarre so what do I do?"

"Well as the new south spirit your first job is to clean up the area." Tia said.

"Wait a minute you mean I have to clean all this?!"

Frida gawked at the huge mess surrounding her, cluttered junk, cobwebs, dust, dirt, broken didhes, dirty dishes, dirty laundry lying on the floor, weeds growing outside, holes in the roof, this entire place was a pigsty.

"You have got to be kidding me. Can't you guys do this?"

"Alas we cannot for he cannot grasp cleaning tools." Tia said.

Frida huffed then with great reluctance she rolled up her sleeves and started to clean up. She dusted, scrubbed the floor, pulled weeds, swept up the broken glass, wiped the tables, washed the dishes, did the laundry, and she tried to mend the roof but she ended up falling off.

"Are you alright Frida?" Pablo asked.

"No! This is ridiculous! There's no way I can do this on my own!"

"What you need is a familiar. You need to find Manny."

"No way! He's a jerk! And besides what is a familiar anyway?"

"A familiar is someone who serves and protects their chosen spirit obeying their every command."

"Obey my every command? Serve me? So what you're saying is he's basically my personal manservant?"

"Yes once you seal the contract that is."

"Ooooh that does sound nice." She said grinning mischievously. "So what do I have to do to seal the contract?"

"Take him and kiss him on the mouth."

"What?!"

"Yep. The very moment your lips touch his he will become your loyal servant forever." Tia said.

"But I...I can't kiss him." She said blushing.

"Why not?"

"Well I...I...You see I haven't had my first kiss yet and I've been saving it for someone special. You sure there's no other way to seal the contract?"

"There's always the blood signing." Pablo pulled a blank scroll off the shelf then pricked Frida's finger the needle and made her bleed on to the paper.

"Ouch! Hey what did you do that for?!"

When her blood fell on to the paper several paragraphs appeared.

"This is a document of eternal servitude." Pablo said. "If Manny picks his finger and puts his blood on this paper he will have signed it, sealing a familiar contract with you. That's how he became Tonio's familiar but I don't think this will work in your case since he willingly signed."

"Well I don't have to get him to sign right? I just need to get him to bleed on to this right?" Frida said taking the document.

"Correct!" Pablo and Tia said.

"Okay then I'll just find him, pick his finger, and get him to bleed on this. The only problem is I don't know where he is."

"We do."

"Can you take me to him?"

Manny was in the spirit world. A mysterious separate dimension where spirits, naguals, aluxes, quinametzins, niads, monsters, and other creatures of Mayan and Aztec legends reside. Most of them prefer to reside here but there are those who live in the human world. However humans are forbidden to enter the spirit world due to the fact that half the population of these creatures have diets that consist of human flesh. But that didn't stop Pablo and Tia from taking Frida there. She noticed that the spirit world was a lot different from the human world. For one thing it was night time right now even though it was twelve pm.

"It is always night here." Pablo said. "It is because the sun does not reach this world."

She also noticed that despite it being night time the city in this world was glowing. Every thing, the houses, the buildings, the sea, the ground, the road, it was all surrounded by some glowing aura. It was like some glow in the dark city. But she figured that they had to have a glowing city if there wasn't any sunlight in this world. They walked for quite sometime until they came to a brothel that was run by tzitmitles. Now from what Frida remembered in class tzitmitiles were hideous, skeleton like women who devoured anything they saw. But she was proven wrong when she entered the building to find extremely pale but attractive women with black markings on their bodies and barely wore any clothing.

"Manny!" Tia called.

"Where are you Manny?" Pablo asked.

"Quiet you two! You're making a scene!" They heard his voice call back. They followed it to a room where they found him drinking with two tzitmitl prostitutes. "What do you want?"

"How deplorable! You are a familiar in service to a spirit!" Tia scolded.

"Of all the nerve! To blow off your responsibilities to drink and fornicate!" Pablo scolded. "Lord Tonio would be ashamed!"

"Leave me alone." Manny groaned.

"You must stop this at once!" Tia cried. "Your behavior is most disgraceful!"

"And you harlets remove yourselves now!"

"What?! How dare you!" The two tzitmitl women cried as they began to pound on the two aluxes. "Such rude and annoying creatures! You two should leave!"

"Hey! Ow! Ladies please where's your compassion?!" Pablo cried.

"Get them!"

They then started to beat them with a broom while Manny just casually drank tequila.

"Why are you two here anyway?" He asked.

"Frida wants to see you. Ow! Oof!" Tia cried.

"Well I don't want to see her and she'll just have to deal with it."

"Yeah about that she's kind of already here." Pablo said.

At those words Manny spat out his drank and then looked that Frida was standing right at the door way clutching a needle in one hand and a scroll in the next looking angry and disgusted.

"Why the hell would you two bring a human here?!" Manny snapped at the two Aluxes.

"To make you my familiar you slob!" She said holding up the needle. "Now hold still!"

"Oh no you don't!"

She lunged toward him with the needle only for him to jump out of the way and out the window, landing on his feet and running off.

"Come back here you!"

Frida ran downstairs and out of the brothel, chasing Manny through the city. Unfortunately for her he was a fast one, he ran so fast that it looked like he was flying. But she was determined to catch him because there was no way she could fix up that house and make it a proper place to live without his help and there was no way she was going to live at a shelter. She chased him for hours, trying to keep up with him the best she could but he only kept getting farther and farther away until he was gone.

"Oh man." She panted out of breath. "I hate running heh...Heh...Heh...There's gotta be a way to catch up with that guy."

As she stood there trying to catch her breath she felt something stroke her hair. Startled she jumped back to see a cloaked figure standing behind her. By the looks of it she figured that it was an old woman.

"What pretty hair you've got." The figure said in a crony voice. "And such a young body. I can sense the spiritual energy inside of you."

"Hey back off creepy lady! I've got somebody to find."

"Such a rude and impertinent mouth! I believe that I'll being doing the world a favor by eating you!"

"Hey! My mouth is not- Wait a minute eat me?"

Just then the little, cloaked, figure began to grow taller and it tossed away it's cloak reaveling itself to be a hideaous, skeleton like hag. Now this thing was just like the tzitmitl women she had seen in the illustrations of her text books in history class.

"If I eat your flesh I'll be young and beautiful again! Now prepare to die!"

Frida quickly grabbed a nearby stone and flung it out her face before taking off running. She heard the hag screech in anger and the sound of her speeding footsteps as it got closer to her. She tripped over a root and fell down, the hag then grabbed her by her boot and proceeded to pull her toward her mouth which was opening to the size of a port hole. In response Frida kicked her in the face and ran full speed ahead terrified of what might become of her if she was caught a second time. She climbed up a tree hoping that the had was too old to climb but she wasn't. She soon found herself clinging to a tree branch while kicking the hag in the face every time it came near her but she couldn't keep it up forever.

"Oh God! Someone help me!" She screamed.

"Need some help?" She looked up to see Manny perched on another branch looking smug and amused which annoyed her greatly.

"What do you want you jerk? I thought you were running away from me?" She snapped.

"I was but you have dropped both the needle and the document so there's nothing you can do to make me your familiar."

"That doesn't explain why you're here?"

"Mine!" The hag shrieked grabbing Frida's leg.

"Ahh! Get off me!" She screamed kicking her down.

"Well if you must know I'm here because I want to enjoy the show." He smirked. "I've never seen a human woman be eaten alive. Seems like a fascinating act to watch don't you think?"

"Are you pyscho?! You're not really just gonna sit there and let her eat me are you?!"

"Hmmm...I might save you if you beg."

"Beg?! You're kidding right?!"

"Nope. Beg me to save you and I might do it."

"Like hell I'd beg you for anything!"

"Fine then say hi to God for me when you die."

She heard the sound of the break she was holding on to breaking. Once it broke she was done for. There was only one way and frankly she didn't like it but if she wanted to live then she would have to deal with it. The branch she held on to snapped but she grabbed Manny's ankle and using all her strength she pulled him down with her as she fell.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He demanded as they fell.

But she only looked him in the eyes and grabbed his face.

"Kiss me you fool!"

She then closed her eyes and before he could stop her she pulled his face closer to hers until there lips met in forced kiss. Manny was so shocked by what was going on tgat he didn't know how to react. Why was this woman kissing him? Then he remembered there was another way to seal a familiar contract and she had just done it. Her lips broke away from his and she glared at him.

"Now help me you jerk!" She ordered as she continued to fall further down.

Manny heard the sound of shackles being clamped on and felt himself being dragged down toward the falling girl.

"Curse you!" He shouted.

He then reached out to Frida, caught her body in his arms, and landed safely on his feet. He was now Frida's familiar and had to obey any command she gave him. At the realization of this she gave him the same amused smirk he had given her just few moments ago.

"Give me the girl! She's my prey!" The hag demanded.

Manny glared at her then made a green fire in his hand which he threw at her knocking her to the ground and burning her face.

"You putrid hag! Thanks to you I am stuck being a familiar again! And to a human! Of all the beings I could've served this is the worst! You'll pay for this you dirty harpy!"

Frida watched as he angrily began to beat up the hag while feeling very pleased with herself. She wasn't sure of what exactly was going on but she had successfully snagged herself a home and manservant in one day. So maybe for once things were actually going to get better for her.

 **Creatures in this story.**

 **Nagual - A demon who can spiritually or physically take on the form of an animal**

 **Alux - Short nature spirites**

 **Tzitmitl - Skeleton like demon women**

 **Niads - Nymphs**

 **Quinametzin - Giant**

 **This is based off of an anime I watch. Let me know if this is a good story and if you want me to update it.**


	2. Chapter 2

Frida yawned as she woke up the next morning. She had been so exhausted by the events of last night that she passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow. Wait pillow? She had slept on a pillow? How? Wasn't she homeless?

"Oh man talk about a weird dream." She said. "I dreamt that some guy gave me his house and made me a spirit then I nearly got eaten by some monster thingy but some guy named Manny saved me because I forced a kiss on him. Huh how funny."

But she soon discovered that what happened last night wasn't a dream when she awoke to see Pablo and Tia. She also became aware that she was laying in a nice bed, in a nice bedroom, in a nice house. The house was clean with comfortable furniture, a tv, a closet of clothes, a shelf of books, and the softest bed she had ever slept on.

"When did all this get here?" She asked.

"Manny brought it." Pablo said. "After you successfully made him your familiar he began to fix up the house and improve it's living conditions for you."

Blush rose to Frida's cheeks as she realized that last night she had her first kiss and it wasn't with a boy she liked. The whole thing made her feel both embarrassed and disappointed.

"So where is the guy?' She asked.

"He's been by your side through the whole night." Pablo said pointing to the left.

She looked over and saw Manny sitting on the floor looking beyond irritated.

"Ah!" She cried startled. "Okay that's a little creepy."

He glared at her then the irritation on his face quickly changed into a smile.

"Well good morning Frida I hope you slept well." He said sweetly.

"Huh?"

"As of now I am your familiar and even though it's against my will it cannot be changed so if you need anything feel free to ask and I will attend to your needs."

"You're in a good mood today and here I thought you would be mad."

"Me? Mad? Oh no I think mad is too timid."

"Eh?"

"I'm seething." His smile then faded to a great anger. "SEETHING WITH PURE RAGE! THE HUMILIATION OF ME HAVING TO SERVE A LITTLE GIRL LIKE YOU! THE WRETCHEDNESS OF IT KEPT ME FROM SLEEPING AT ALL LAST NIGHT!"

"I'm...I'm sorry." She stuttered becoming very scared of his anger.

"SORRY?! OH NO SORRY DOESN'T CUT IT! BECAUSE OF YOU MY REPUTATION IS BASICALLY IN THE TOILET NOW! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY CREATURES ARE GOING TO MOCK ME FOR THIS?!"

"I...I...I didn't mean any harm! And I didn't mean to embarrass you but that hag was gonna eat me! I didn't wanna die! I'm too young to die! I've got so much to live for! Please don't eat me!"

"Eat you? Gross! I swear humans can be the dumbest creatures on the planet. Not all demons eat human flesh you know."

"You mean you're not going to eat me?"

"Of course not! That's disgusting! Believe me I'd never eat a human being."

"Oh what a relief."

"To be honest the idea of eating something with arms and legs like me is a little disturbing also a chubby thing like you would probably be high in cholesterol and fat."

"Hey!"

"That aside even though I hate being the familiar of a helpless little girl it cannot be helped. I must serve you whether I like it or not. Ugh...I still can't believe I actually kissed a human woman. One with extremely dry lips, ever heard of chapstick?"

"Hey you weren't such a great thing to kiss. Your breath wreaked of tequila! Ever heard of breath mints?"

"Alright you two that's enough." Tia said. "Manny you need to start explaining to Frida what her duty is."

"Ha! You said duty!" Frida laughed.

"Not that kind of duty you idiot." Manny said rolling his eyes. "Anyway you are the new spirit of the south meaning it is your job to bless the land with harvest, warm weather, fertility, and to handle marriage and family."

"Right, okay...And how do I do that?"

"For example one of your responsibilities is to assist in matchmaking and see couples happily married."

"Alright...And how do I do that?"

Manny face palmed then handed her a sheet of paper along with a bottle of ink and a feather.

"These papers are charms, write something on it, place it on something, and poof! Whatever you wrote will come true."

"Cool! I'm gonna give myself a car with this!"

"Sorry you cannot use them for selfish desires."

"Aww man."

"Also you need to study this." He handed her a large book.

"What is this?'

"A record of all the couples and lovers in the area. Learn their names and locations or you will basically be of no use to them now then while you study that I have some weeding to do."

Frida opened the book to find it filled with thousands pages with names and addresses written in them. It was like a neverending phone book. She sat down and began studying the names and addresses written in the pages carefully...For about five minutes. Then she got bored and decided to turn on the tv. She flipped through the channels finding nothing interesting until she turned on the news channel.

"That's right viewers famous rock star Aaron Hunt will be attending Leone High School today after being on tour for three years." The reporter on TV said.

"No way!" Frida cried excited.

She rushed into her bedroom changed out of her white camisole and purple pajama pants and into a casual red dress, white stockings, and gray boots. She then brushed her teeth, combed her blue hair and put goggles on her head. Once dressed and groomed she packed her shoulder bag with a few books, a journal, and pencils. Finally she bolted excitedly toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked her.

"I'm going to school." She said.

"School? If I'm not mistaken you're eighteen right?"

"Yes."

"Well correct me if I'm wrong but if you're eighteenth shouldn't you be out of school by now?"

"I got held back one year."

"So you are pretty stupid?"

"It's not my fault! My foster parents were too cheap to buy me text books so I couldn't study! Anyway I have to go to school today!"

"And why is that?"

"Because Aaron Hunt is coming!"

"Who?"

Allow me to explain. Aaron Hunt is the extremely popular pop super star who's incredible singing has spread throughout the entire nation causing many young girls to scream and pass out. However no one knows exactly where he came from.

"Exactly!" Frida said handing him a flier she got from his last concert.

"So what you have a crush on this pretty boy?" Manny said examining the flier.

"No but he's one of the best singers ever! If I could talk to him maybe he could give me tips on how I could become a famous singer like him."

"You sing?"

"Yep. It's kind of my dream."

"No doubt you sound horrible."

"Ugh!"

"And this guy looks like a total poser to me."

"Well who cares what you think! I'm going."

"No you're not."

"Why?"

"As a south spirit you will be targeted by God knows what and I may not always be there to protect you."

"So? I can take care of myself and besides how is anyone gonna know I'm a spirit?"

"The mark on your forehead maybe. It's not visible to humans but to creatures it's about as noticeable as a police siren."

"Come on! It's my dream to become a singer and I need his help! Haven't you ever had a dream?"

"Yeah I had one once. I dreamt of freedom but I was denied that dream thanks to a certain blue haired nuisance! So I don't see why I should support your dream and allow you to meet this fake!"

"Party pooper. Okay if that doesn't convince you maybe this will, I promised my parents that I would go to school and work hard even if I didn't want to and believe me I don't want to but a promise is a promise."

Manny seethed for a moment. He didn't know why but something about promises always upset him. He had tried for years to figure out why he didn't like promises but he never could. He sighed then thought for a moment.

"If you must go to school then I guess it's okay."

"Really? Thanks."

"Wait a minute you may go under one condition."

"Anything. I'll do anything."

...

"Anything but this."

The condition that she had to do was wear an embarrassing cat hood that covered her forehead to avoid any creatures seeing her mark. She had never felt more embarrassed in all her life. She was sure that once people from her school saw her they would make fun of her. And they did. The worst was Billy Cactus, some stupid kid with crooked teeth and an obsession for cactuses.

"What's with the hat Suarez! You look like a total geek!" He teased.

"Why did I have to be in class with you Billy?" She huffed.

"I heard you got kicked out of foster care. What happened were you too much of a problem?"

Frida nashed her teeth and resisted the urge to punch him straight across his face. Luckily her anger was quickly forgotten when a crowd of girls in her class gathered around the door screaming and squealing with joy and excitement as the great Aaron Hunt walked into the classroom. There he was with his slick black hair and piercings and mysterious black eyes that always made girls swoon.

"Oh my God it's really him!" One girl cried.

"He's so gorgeous I think I'm gonna die!" Another sighed.

"Oh my God he just gazed into my eyes!"

"No he gazed into mine!"

"No mine!"

As the girls fought Aaron made his way toward Frida. She froze, he was coming over to her. What was he going to say? What was he going to do? Did he like her? She never thought about dating someone like him because she thought it would never happen. But if he did want to date her? What if she had a rockstar for a boyfriend?

"Hey hat head!" He said rudely. "You're in my seat."

Those rude words were then followed by the entire class laughing and pointing at her. Frida's face became flushed with humiliation and rushed into the girl's bathroom where she burst into tears. She was wrong, this was the most embarrassed she had ever been.

"What's the matter? Were you being builled by mean spirited human teenagers?"

She was startled by Manny's sudden appearance in the bathroom.

"Ahh! What are you doing here?! This is the girl's bathroom!"

"I was worried and came to see if you were alright."

But she could tell by that smile on his face that he didn't care at all and that only made her sadder.

"Liar." She said. "You don't care at all."

She looked at him with tear filled eyes which sent a pang of guilt in his heart.

"Just leave me alone you jerk!"

She then stormed out of the bathroom where she found Aaron wai

"Did you have a nice cry in there." He teased. "How cute."

"What do you want?" She asked irritated.

"Look I'm sorry about what I said earlier." He totally doesn't mean it. "I just get a little tired of people staring at me all the time and I ended up taking my frustration out on you. So don't worry about whether or not I might hate you okay."

He flashed her one of his famous rockstar smiles, expecting her to go ga-ga like some crazed fan girl. She felt her cheeks turn red with rage. What a jerk. She was embarrassed that she had worn this stupid hood just to see him. She was embarrassed by just being a fan of his. Former fan.

"Well you don't have to worry about me looking at you anymore you big jerk!"

Her angry tone shocked him. Did a teenage girl just yell at him and insult him?

"What did you call me?"

"You heard me loud and clear. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get to class."

She then marched off to class where she faced various insults, teasing, and mocking from her peers. Now it's not like Frida wasn't used to teasing. In fact she had been teased and builled for as long as she could remember. The other kids had builled her about almost everything. Her hair, her clothes, her eccentric personality, how poor she was, the fact that she was an orphan. She remembered when she was little she would come home crying from school because the other kids picked on her, then her mother and father would hold her and say things like.

"Now don't you listen to any of those rotten kids. They only do it because you're such a beautiful little girl and the girls are all jealous while the boys like you but don't know how to go about it."

How she wished that they were still here. Them and her sisters. But they were gone, they had been gone for thirteen years and like it or not they were never coming back.

12:00 pm.

"So Frida what kind of poor man's lunch did you bring today?" Billy said.

"It's none of your business!" She snapped. "But just so you know...Oh crap!"

"Oh no could you not afford to even pack a lunch? That's hilarious!"

"Shut up! I'm buying lunch today!"

"Really? You actually have money?"

"Of course I have money!" Do I? I think I do. She began to search her pockets for any money and much to her surprise she found a hundred dollars in her pack pocket. "Huh? This isn't mine."

"Hey everyone I'm missing a hundred dollars. Has anyone seen them?" Aaron said smirking over at Frida.

Everyone in the classroom followed his gaze and stared at her suspiciously. Frida quickly hid the money back in her pocket and gulped nervously. She didn't steal that money, Aaron somehow managed to slip his money into her pocket but like anyone would believe her over him. If it was reported that she had stolen from a student especially a celebrity she would expelled for sure.

"Well Frida?" Aaron asked still smirking. "Would you mind emptying your pockets?"

She didn't know what to do. Oh God she was done for.

"Frida there you are." She heard a familiar voice say. Looking at the classroom door she saw Manny standing there holding a box. But he looked different. His ears, his tail, his fangs, and his claws were gone and he now wore a t-shirt, leather jacket, jeans, and tennis shoes. He looked perfectly normal. "Sorry I'm late the traffic was terrible, anyway here's your lunch."

He handed her the box. She looked up at him confused and suspicious.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

"Saving your butt, now play along if you want to keep going to school." He whispered back.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Aaron asked Manny.

"I'm a friend of Frida's, she left her money for lunch at home so I decided to bring her lunch. Oh and by the way those bills you reported stolen are right next to your feet." Manny said pointing down.

Aaron looked downward and saw that the money was indeed on the floor next to his feet. But how? He was sure that he had slipped it into Frida's pocket.

"Next time maybe you should look a little harder before accusing of theft eh pretty boy?" He put his arm around Frida's shoulder much to her surprise. "Okay we'll be going to lunch now."

He then led her out of the classroom and toward the cafeteria much to the confusion of her other classmates.

"Um...What was that?" Frida asked him once they were alone.

"What?"

"That whole lunch act. Why did you do that?"

"Well you were going to get into trouble for something you didn't do right?"

"Yes."

"So I helped you."

"You helped me? Why?"

"Because it's my job stupid! Now hurry up and eat already so I can leave, keeping my tail hidden is very uncomfortable."

She was speechless. He was actually being nice to her. He was actually helping her. She couldn't remember the last time somebody actually helped her. It felt weird. Really weird, but it was a good kind of weird. The next day Frida brought a packed lunch and managed to sneak out of the house without that hood because she didn't think she really needed it and she found it way too humiliating.

On her way to school she felt like someone was following her. She checked around herself to see if anyone was there but she didn't see anyone or anything. Then she was suddenly stopped by a limo pulling up. The window rolled down to reveal that the passenger was Aaron.

"Oh great! What do you want?" She asked annoyed.

"I thought that you might need a ride to school."

"Sorry but my mother warned me never to get into cars with strange men now beat it!"

She turned to her heels and walked away once again shocking Aaron. But he didn't stop there. All day he kept trying to get her attention while she continued to ignore him. Eventually she grew impatient with his persistence and decided to give him a piece of her mind.

"Will you leave me alone?!" She snapped at him. "Geez! What is your deal?"

"I just wanna know something."

"What?"

"All I have to do is look at a girl and she either screams, blushes, or faints yet you ignore me at every angle."

"And that doesn't tell you anything?"

"I just wanna know why you don't like me that's all."

"Okay number one you insulted me, number two you tried to frame me for theft, and number three you won't leave me alone. Oye how dumb are you?"

"I'm not dumb!"

"Well any dolt with half of a brain would get the idea that I'm not interested in them and back off! But you don't seem to get that so that must mean you're pretty dumb! Now for the last time leave me alone!"

She walked off to her next class. Aaron chuckled to himself.

"You underestimate what I really want from you south spirit. Go on, resist me all you want but sooner or later I'll have you- Ahhh!"

Suddenly he received a very hard and painful kick from behind that knocked him down. A kick that had been given to him by Manny.

"Ha! I knew there was something funny about you, you dirty creature." Manny said.

"You again?! Just who the hell are you?!"

"I am Frida's familiar and you are? "

"I am a chonchon from the mountains, I descended here seventeen years ago."

"A chonchon posing as a human. Well I guess I was right about you being a poser. Now why have you targeted my lady and mistress?"

"Simple I plan to consume her."

"So you want to eat her? I swear you human eating creatures have such a nasty diet."

"Judge all you like but once I have her I'll be the new south spirit."

"You believe that you can become a spirit? That's a laugh."

"Well you have to admit you definitely prefer me over that little human girl."

"No not at all. Actually I couldn't be happier that she's the spirit and not you. After all she's not a coward who preys on those weaker than she is."

Aaron snarled and golden wings appeared from his back. With a swipe of his hand he released a powerful wind that would've sent Manny flying away if he hadn't used his claws to cling to a tree. He responded by jumping up so high that Aaron couldn't see him. As he searched the sky for him he was unaware that the mischievous tiger nagual had landed quietly and softly behind him with a very special leaf being held between his fingers.

"Look behind you chump." Before Aaron could stop him Manny put the leaf on him and Aaron changed into an ostrich. "Did you know that ostrich meat is low in calories and full of iron and other minerals? How lucky for you right? After I feed you to Frida you will become part of her flesh which I find so romantic. So you will become a spirit but it will be Frida consuming you to make that happen."

He then made a cookbook appear in his hand, opened it, and began flipping through the pages.

"Now let's see...Obviously you'll have to be plucked and I do believe that you would taste better roasted but tell me would you prefer to be served with butter or gravy?"

Hearing his words the ostrich screeched and ran away. Manny made a green fire appear.

"Get him." He ordered sending the fire after Aaron before returning to read the cook book. "Hmm..Maybe I should just stuff him with bread?"

Aaron ran through the entire school, scared out of his mind of the flame coming for him. The students who saw him were beyond confused.

"Is that an ostrich?" One student asked.

"Where did it come from?" Another asked.

"A familiar?!" Aaron thought fearfully. "How is anything of what just happened the work of a familiar?! Help! Someone stop that tiger! Save me spirit!"

Frida was in the middle of reading and listening to music when she heard the sound of screeching and smelled something burning. Looking over she saw the ostrich getting chased by the fire and they were about to hit a girl walking by. Thinking fast Frida jumped and pushed the girl out of the way then BAM! CRASH! SMACK!

The fire was gone by the two girls and ostrich had gotten hit on the head pretty bad.

"Oh God that hurt. Hey you okay?" Frida asked the girl who nodded. "Geez where did the ostrich come from?"

She quickly realized the answer when she saw the familiar punk rock necklace the ostrich was wearing.

"MANNY!" She shouted angrily.

The tiger nagual sighed when he heard her then went to meet her in the nurse's office.

"Alright what happened?"

"Nothing I was just trying to protect you." Manny said trying to look innocent.

"What does that have to do with Aaron being a bird?"

"Well for one thing he's not even a human. He's a creature, a chonchon who's purpose was to eat you and take your place as the south spirit."

"What?! That's why you were so interested in me?! Because you were trying to eat me?!" She cried angrily at the ostrich.

"Yes and I say we return the favor by eating him for dinner tonight." Manny said grinning at him deviously. "How does roasted ostrich with bread stuffing sound?"

"We're not eating him."

"Why not?"

"Because one it's gross and two I don't think my conscience would allow me to so change him back. Now."

"Fine."

He snapped his fingers and Aaron was changed back.

"Okay Aaron let's make a deal alright you leave me alone and I make sure Manny doesn't turn you into entree, deal?" She held out her hand to him.

"Deal." He said shaking it nervously. "But seriously though I am sorry and thanks for saving me."

"No problem."

 **A Chonchon - A mythical, demonic bird that can take on human form.**

 **Please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

"So how exactly does this whole spiritual thing work?" Frida asked Manny. "Are they like all ghosts or something? Where did they come from?"

"I'll tell you everything but I'm only doing it once so pay attention." He said. "Millions of years ago when Christians started getting slaughtered here and there like cattle God created six spirits to help assist mankind. The first two were the keepers of the two worlds of the afterlife. La Muerte spirit of heaven and Xibalba spirit of hell he used to be heaven's keeper until he thought it would be funny to create mystical to tease the living after that he was demoted to hell. After them came the other four Hamato (Seventh Samari) spirit of the North, Chiquita the spirit of the East, Chakal spirit of the West I hate that guy by the way, and finally Tonio spirit of the South or at least he was until you came along."

"You sure do know a lot about all this."

"As a familiar it is my responsibility to know all this."

"Wow responsibility, you don't see a lot of teenagers taking that on. Hey how old are you anyway?" She asked while drinking some soda.

"I am exactly a thousand and two years old."

Frida spat her drink right in his face when he said that.

"You're what!?" She cried.

Manny glared at her then using his hand wiped the soda from his face.

"Yes I am a thousand and two years old."

"But you're a teenager! How are you even alive?!"

"Because I age differently from you imbecile! You humans live for at most a hundred and twenty years my kind on the other hand live for a million years."

"A million years?! Wait if that's true why do you look so young? I mean you look like you're the same age as me."

"That is because I haven't out grown my teenage phase yet. My kind known as the naguals go through phases that last for centuries. For example from the 100's to 1400's I was a child, from the 1500's to the 40000's I shall remain a teenager, from the 50000's to the 90000's I will be an adult, and in the 10000's I will be an old man until I die at age one million. Spirits on the other hand are immortal."

"Sweet so does that mean I'll live forever?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because even though you have spiritual powers you still posses a human body and a human life."

"No fair."

"Excuse me." A voice chirped. At the window was a bird carrying a small note. "I have a message from Princess Andra to the new south spirit."

"Princess Andra?"

The bird dropped the note in Frida's hand which she and Manny read together.

"It would seem that she and King Sanchez plan to pay us a visit to give their blessings to you." Manny said.

"Who are they?" Frida asked.

"King Sanchez and his daughter Princess Andra are chipactli who rule over the swamp region. The maintain floods, storms, and the occasional crocodile infestation."

"And they want to see me?"

"Yes but they won't get the opportunity to see you today."

"Why not?"

"Well King Sanchez hates humans as much as I do and you being a human you would no doubt upset the king and cause him to unlesh a hoard of hungry crocodiles on us. So while they are here you shall stay out of sight so you won't do something stupid."

"I won't do anything stupid."

"Yes you will. Humans always do stupid things."

"What is it with you and humans? Why do you have against them?"

"It is none of your business but one reason is because they are weak, fragile, are easily killed, and don't live very long and out of all the humans I've met in my life you are the most annoying."

"Hey!"

"Now they will be here any minute so get out of sight."

With that said he shoved her into her bedroom and locked the door.

"Hey let me out! I order you to let me out!"

But he had figured she would try something like that so he shoved cotton in his ears so he couldn't hear her. When he didn't come to the door she decided to try to pick the lock but that didn't work either.

"Ugh! Stupid jerk!"

"Please try not to be too angry with him Frida." Pablo said. "He only wants to make sure that you don't do something that might get yourself hurt. You wouldn't believe how many people King Sanchez has killed just for upsetting him."

"That doesn't give him the right to be so insulting to me. I don't get it, why does he hate humans so much? Is it really because we don't live as long as naga...Nagi...Nagu...Whatever he is."

"Well..." Pablo and Tia said looking at each other.

"We're not supposed to tell anyone this but since he's your familiar we believe you have a right to know." Tia said.

"A right to know what?"

"A shorter life span isn't the real reason he hates humans so." Pablo said. "He hates them because of what they did to his family."

"His family?"

"Years ago long before you were even born, he used to be a happy, carefree, child."

"Manny? A child?"

She never pictured someone as serious, mean, and rude as Manny as a happy and sweet little kid. But as she thought more about it she figured that everyone had started out as a child once and that Manny was no exception. She was also surprised to hear that he had a family. She never took him as the family type. He seemed more like a loner to her.

"He was the son of a strong panther nagual and a beautiful niad, both were peaceful creatures who just wanted to live a quiet and happy life with him. But years ago when he was a child a terrible famine had struck the village where they lived and the humans blamed them for it. One night they were attacked by an angry mob who managed to get their hands on a drug that could weaken a creature's powers. They shot both of his parents with arrows that were coated in that drug."

"It had weaken them both enough for the humans to kill them. Manny was only able to escape because his parents hid him somewhere and led the mob away from him." Tia said. "Ever since then he's hated humans above everything else in the world because he believes they're all nothing more than ignorant, selfish, murderous creatures."

Hearing these words Frida felt her irritation and anger toward Manny vanish and it's place she felt compassion and understanding. She began to imagine what it would feel like to be a small child and to witness the death of your parents. She was a child when her parents and her sisters had died in that car accident but she hadn't witnessed it. Nor had she witnessed them being brutally murdered. She couldn't imagine what something like that would do to a person. No wonder he hated humans so much.

"Speaking of murderous creatures do you think Manny can handle Sanchez?" Tia asked Pablo. "You know how easily violent he can get."

"I hope so. He hates to be disappointed."

"Hey wait a minute how did you two get into my bedroom anyway?" Frida asked.

"We came in through the window." Tia said pointing toward the open window. Seeing that Frida smiled mischievously and began to climb out the window despite protests from the two aluxes.

Meanwhile in the other room Manny was speaking the rulers of the swamps, their royal wetnesses, King Sanchez and his daughter Princess Andra. King Sanchez was a large, intimidating brute of a man who resembled something that was a cross between a crocodile and lizard. His daughter on the other hand was quite the little thing with a seemingly shy and quiet appearance that also resembled that of a small fish. The two looked so different it was hard to believe that they were related, the only thing they had in common in physical appearance was that they both were a sliver color.

"So familiar where is this new south spirit?" Sanchez asked impatiently. "Why hasn't she shown herself yet?"

"I'm sorry but Frida is feeling under the weather so she will not be able to see you. However she sends her sincerest apologies." Manny said politely.

"What?! I demand that she show her face now!" He ordered.

"She can't for she is not well."

"Tell me something is this new spirit how the rumors describe her?"

"The depends how do the rumors describe her?"

Unknown to either one of them Frida was listening just outside the door.

"From what I hear she is a human girl." Sanchez said. "An ugly, stupid, filthy, and disgraceful creature who has fleas."

"Fleas?!" She whispered angrily. "How dare you."

"Forgive me for correcting you but none of those rumors are true." Manny said. "Yes she is a human girl but she is in no way inferior as most people say. True she's not that strong or fast but she is determined, free spirited, and willing to do her best. I'm sure that given the right amount of time she will prove to be exceptional."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was actually saying nice things about her.

"How ridiculous! You sound proud to be her familiar!" Sanchez laughed.

"Well in a sense I am and I must admit I do find her better to serve than some irritating creatures." Manny said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sanchez said getting upset. "Are you insinuating that I am irritating?"

"Maybe, maybe not. You're smart your highness you figure it out."

Sanchez pulled his sword out.

"You hold your tongue vermin!" He pulled out his sword. "Now once again I command you to bring out that human spirit at once!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that so you'll just have to be disappointed."

As if on cue the door to the room opened revealing that Frida was standing on the other side. Apparently when she had leaned on the door to hear the conversation she had causedthe door to open.

"Um...Hi?" She said smiling nervously when all attention turned toward her. Her nerves only rose when Manny glared at her then she felt him gently grasp her hand.

"You idiot! Why are you here?" He whispered harshly.

"It was an accident! I was just trying to hear what you all were talking about."

"You were supposed to stay in your room! Now that you're here I have to focus on protecting you!"

The way he spoke was harsh enough to send chills down her spine but his touch was so kind that at the same time she felt assured.

"So this is the south spirit!" Sanchez said when he saw the mark on Frida's forehead. "A homely little girl! Well you and your familiar shall both die for insulting me and wasting my time!"

"You may try to kill us, oh yes you may try." Manny said bringing out his claws. "But I am prepared to protect my lady and mistress to the death so I wouldn't even think about harming one hair on her head if I were you."

"Mammal scum! Prepare to die!"

Sanchez lunged forward to stab Manny only for him to dodge his blade. Frida and Andra could only watch in amazement Manny dodged each and everyone of Sanchez's attacks with great speed and agility that was unmatched. The chipactli king became further enraged with every mocking smirk the tiger familiar gave him as he avaded his sword and when the moment was right he tripped Sanchez with his tail and came up from behind with another of his special He placed the leaf on his back. Then POOF! All that remained of the great chipactli king was a fat fish flopping around the floor.

"Father?" Andra said looking down at the fish.

She reached for him only to have Manny snatch him up by his tail.

"Cook five minutes over a medium fire and you have a perfectly grilled fish. It is quite the delectable breakfast entrée, in fact it's my favorite." Manny said licking his chops and holding him over a fire that Manny made in his other hand. "If I may ask how does it feel being grilled alive? I am curious."

"No! Please don't eat my father!" Andra begged.

"Manny stop! Put him down right now!" Frida ordered.

At once Manny dropped the fish to the floor.

"Geez first it was Aaron and now this guy! What is it with you turning people into animals and then eating them? Make up with him now!"

Manny then shook the fish's fin.

"You're being awfully obedient all of a sudden." She noticed.

"So that's sacred word binding." Andra said. "If you are able to hold such power over a creature as dangerous as Manny then you must truly be the south spirit."

"Sacred word binding?"

"Allow us to explain." Pablo said. "Sacred word binding is the power that a spirit has over a familiar."

"Meaning whatever order you give him he must obey no matter what." Tia said.

"Those blasted fools!" Manny thought angrily. "They were supposed to keep that a secret from her!"

"Wow that's awesome." Frida said.

"Look what you've done now she is happy!" Manny wined.

"Tiger familiar." Andra said. "I apologise for my father's rude behavior in truth I did not come here to quarrel I came because I wish to make a match."

"A match?" Frida asked.

"Yes you see I'm in love with a human. His name is Juan Rodriguez, we only met once but for me it was love at first sight. He had become lost in the swamp but I led him out. Ever since then he's all I can think about."

"That's so sweet." Frida said.

"That's stupid." Manny said. "Pardon my rudeness your highness but you know as well as I do that humans and creatures are forbidden to be in a romantic relationship."

"I know." She sighed disheartedly. "I know it's foolish but I can't help it I love him so."

As Frida listened to her words she couldn't help but feel sorry for her and she felt that she wanted to see Andra happy.

"I'll do it." She declared.

"You will?" Andra said hopeful.

"You will?!" Manny said horrified.

"Yes I believe that when it comes to true love anything is possible." Frida said.

"Thank you." Andra said smiling.

Andra was overjoyed and grateful that Frida had agreed to help her meet Juan again. Mannyou on the other hand was annoyed by her choice. So much so that the next day he scolded her about it.

"Are you crazy?! Look I know you're new to this whole spirit job so that makes you ignorant and stupid about some things but you should know that creatures and humans are not allowed to be in love or get married." He berated.

"Why?"

"I don't know maybe because they're two different species! I mean whoever heard of a chipactli and a human being in love?! You know chipactli eat humans so that would be like being in love with lunch!"

"I don't care what you say! There is no difference between a human or a creature when it comes to a girl's heart."

"Don't be an idiot! Besides what could you possibly do?"

"I'll never know unless I give it a try!"

"Do not waste your energy."

"Well they should at least be able to fall in love."

"Love is a human centered emotion that causes trouble."

"What so you've never been in love before?"

"Of course not! I find love to be toublesome so I avoid it."

"Whatever! I won't let you stop me from bringing happiness to other people!" Frida headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going into town to find Juan Rodriguez."

Manny bristled.

 _"I'm going into town Manny. Hold down the fort until I get back."_

Those words. Those were the very last words Tonio had said to him before he left. Suddenly Manny became terrified that Frida would leave and never come back just like Tonio did.

"Wait!" He called. "I'm going with you."

"Okay." She said surprised by his sudden worry.

Manny would die before he admitted it but he was afraid to be alone. He didn't act like it but he was very lonely and couldn't bear the idea of being alone for the rest of his life. The thought of it scared him more than anything.

After getting dressed and fixing up their appearances they went into town to find Juan Rodriguez. As they searched Frida noticed that a lot of people were staring at them and didn't know why. Until finally one little boy pointed at Manny and said. "Hey Mommy look that guy has funny ears and a tail."

"Oh crap! I forgot that Manny was a tiger!"

She quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him into the local ice cream shop.

"What was that for?" Manny asked.

"Manny we're in public! If people see you with tiger ears and a tail they'll freak!"

Manny sighed in annoyance then snapped his fingers and his tail disappeared while his his ears changed into regular human looking ones.

"Is this better?" He asked.

"Yes much better." She sighed in relief causing her to look up and finally realize that they were in the ice cream shop. She loved the ice cream shop, it brought back so many fond memories. She remembered how when she was little her parents would bring her here every Friday after picking her up from school to celebrate the weekend.

"Are you hungry?" She asked him.

"I suppose I could eat." He said.

They sat at a table and ordered her favorite sundae. Vanilla topped with churros and hot chocolate, taking that first bite of the cold, creamy, frozen treat along with the sweet cinnamony churros and the warm, melted, rich chocolate made her feel like she was a child again. Manny had never eaten ice cream before and wasn't sure what to make of it. His was also vanilla and it was topped with peanuts and caramel.

"So what is this stuff again?" He asked poking it with his spoon.

"It's ice cream."

"And you're supposed to eat it?"

"Yes."

"It looks strange."

"Believe me it's amazing, try it."

"What's in it?"

"Just milk, cream, and vanilla that's been stirred and frozen."

"And what is this sticky concoction? It looks like tree sap."

"It caramel. Believe me you'll love it."

Manny took a spoonful of it and looked at it skeptically. Then he put it in his mouth, tasting the mixture of creamy, salty, and sweet that the ice cream, peanuts, and caramel had.

"This is...This is...This is...Amazing!" He said. "This is a gift from God."

She watched as he began to devour the sundae like an excitable child. She couldn't help but laugh a little, she never expected him to like it this much. In fact she expected him to just turn up his nose at it but he didn't.

"I'm...Glad you like it Manny but don't eat so fast because you might get-"

"Ahhh! My head!"

"Brain freeze."

She tried so hard not to laugh at him but she couldn't resist. It was so funny seeing him like this.

"Hey Suarez what are you doing here?"

"Billy?!" She cried horrified to see him here.

"And who's this guy you're with?"

"It's not what you think so why don't you go away?"

"What's the matter Suarez scared that I might figure out something?"

"What are you talking about? I've got nothing to hide."

"Oh no? You're foster parents kicking you out! You sleeping in the park! With so many rumors going around it's hard to tell fact from fiction."

"You know those are all lies! I chose to move out because I'm eighteen and I had saved enough money to find my own place!"

"Bull! You're way too poor to have your own place! And any money you do have you probably got from renting out your body like a tramp!"

Frida huffed and laid her head down in embarrassment. She just couldn't get a break could she? However Manny was having none of it. He gently took her by the arm and urged her toward the door.

"We have to go." He told her.

"What? Come on! I was only teasing!" Billy's hand went toward her shoulder only to be stopped by Manny's finger to hit his forehead.

"Do not lay a finger on her." He growled intensely. "Have I made myself clear?"

"Uh Manny people are staring." Frida said grabbing his shoulder and pulling him into a hallway. "Geez what is wrong with you? Are you trying to get us into trouble?"

"It's your own fault for dragging me in here! I thought we were here on a job not to eat ice cream and watch you flirt."

"Um excuse me but you two can't be back here." Said an employee.

"Flirting?! You think I actually like that jerk?!"

"You don't try to stop him when he insults you."

"That doesn't mean I like him!"

"Wheather that's true or not is irrelevant! What I want to know is are we still looking for Juan Rodriguez or not?"

"Huh? You two are looking for me?" The employee asked. He was a young man, a little younger than Frida was. A short but cute guy with red hair who looked like the shy type but he was attractive. "I'm Juan Rodriguez. Can I help you?"

After Juan got off of work Frida explained to him that she had a friend who had a crush on him and wanted to meet him.

"So what do you say? Do you wanna meet her?" Frida asked him.

"I don't know I mean I'm kind of picky about the type of girls I date."

"Really? What do they have to have?"

"Well they...They...For starters they...Oh who am I kidding women hate me. The last girl I talked to pretty much ignored me."

"Well this one really likes you. Trust me, just meet her here tomorrow at five okay?"

"Okay."

The next day Frida sent a message to the swamp requesting that Andra come by her place to give her a makeover before her date. First she had Andra disgusie herself as a human and then began to fix her hair, do her make up, and get her into some proper clothes.

"My daughter is missing!" Sanchez shouted as he came charging into the house.

"Is that a fact?" Manny said.

"I haven't seen her since that human girl summoned her! You had better confess tiger or else!"

"You are making a racket Father! Please control yourself!"

It was Andra's voice that had scolded him but who the voice belonged to was unrecognizeable. It wasn't the same fish girl as before. It was a pretty young girl about fifteen or sixteen years old with short black hair that was kept in a ribbon while she wore a blouse and skirt.

"What on earth did she do to you?!" Sanchez shouted mortified by his daughter's new appearance.

"She fits my clothes perfectly, what do you think isn't she pretty?" Frida asked.

"Does it really look good?" Andra asked.

"Yes, you make a convincing human." Manny said.

"Really?"

"See for yourself."

He handed Andra a little mirror and she looked at her reflection. When she saw herself she gasped.

"Oh my goodness! I almost look beautiful." She smiled at Frida and threw her arms around her in at hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Frida smiled and hugged her back. Later at five o'clock Andra went to meet Juan at the park. When he saw her he was surprised. He never thought that such a pretty girl would actually like him. The two talked and laughed and got to know each other.

"Isn't that sweet?" Frida said.

"It is nothing more than an infatuation." Manny said. "It will fade."

"How do you know?"

"Because sooner or later he'll find out the truth about what she is and when he does he'll become afraid of her and hate her."

"You don't know that! Who knows he could love her enough to see past that."

"Maybe in fairy tale land but not in this world. Humans are selfish and ignorant and when they encounter something they don't understand they fear it and hate it. That's how it's always been."

"What about me?"

"Huh?"

"I'm human, I know what you are and I don't fully understand you that well but I'm not afraid of you and I don't hate you. I'm annoyed by you but I don't hate you or fear you. In fact I like you."

"You like me?"

"Of course we are friends aren't we?"

"I...I guess."

"Okay then so maybe you're wrong about humans."

It wasn't until now that Manny finally acknowledged that fact that Frida had never once shown any sign of fear or hatred toward him. She hadn't screamed or cried or cursed him or say that he should die. She hadn't called him a monster or treated him like one. In fact all she did was bicker with him, smile at him, giggle at him, and now she said that she liked him and that they were friends. It felt weird being around a human who knew that he was a creature but wasn't afraid of him or hate him. But at the same time it felt nice and he wouldn't admit it but he liked her too.

"Maybe I am." He said. "But the that doesn't mean I support a creature-human relationship! Believe me those two won't last a month!"

"Says you! I bet you they will!"

"Alright if their relationship ends before the month you have to spend nine months doing my chores!"

"Okay and if they don't then you have to stop going to that brothel for nine months!"

"You're on, prepare to pull weeds and scrub toilets."

One month later...

"Great now what do I do for fun?" Manny groaned.

"You can start my bath." Frida said grinning triumphly. "But don't you dare peek on me while I'm bathing you pervy cat!"

"Don't be ridiculous I'm not attracted to human women and besides I like my women skinny."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"No...For a hippopotamus! Ha! Ha! Ow!" She had thrown a text book at him.

"Ha, ha serves you right."

 **Chipactli - Demons who resemble swamp and river creatures such as crocodiles, alligators, catfish, frogs, piranhas, and lizards.**


	4. Chapter 4

So far a month had gone by and despite it being that long Frida still hadn't of gotten used to being a spirit or being surrounded by creatures that she had been so sure didn't exist at first. Nir had she fully learned to control her spiritual powers and put them to good use. But she would get the hang of it eventually. To be honest she preferred learning how to use her powers and helping people than doing school work.

"Ahhh!" She heard screaming coming from the girl's bathroom. By the sound of it, it would seem that there was something in there that was scaring the girls.

"It's either a pervert or Manny come to nag me about my 'responsibilites as a spirit." Frida grabbed a broom from the janitor's closet and walked toward the bathroom. "Please let it be a pervert."

When she went into the restroom she found all the girls standing on top of the toilets and sinks clutching their skirts while screaming.

"Frida! Help us!" One girl shrieked.

"There's a snake in the corner!" Another screamed while pointing in the left corner.

Frida looked over in the direction of where she was pointing and saw that hiding in the left corner was a little green snake. It looked like a regular garden snake. From what she knew garden snakes are relatively no threat.

"Kill it!" All the girls screamed.

"It's just a little garden snake. They're harmless." She picked up the snake, it wrapped it's body around her arm but it didn't coil. She walked over toward the window, opened it, and gently put the snake on the ground. "You better get out of here, high school is no place for a little guy like you."

She thought that she saw the snake smile at her before it slithered away into the bushes. Looking down she saw that the snake had left a strange mark on her arm. She tried to wash it off in the sink but it wouldn't go away. She figured that it was a rash and some ointment should get rid of it. When she got home and Manny saw the mark he became worried.

"Where did this come from?" He asked examining her arm.

"I picked up a garden snake in bathroom today and I guess that I'm allergic."

"Oh you thoughtless girl! Why did you have to go and do a stupid thing like that?"

"What? What did I do?"

"That wasn't a garden sanke! And this isn't an allergic reaction! It was a vision serpent and this is it's mark of favor!"

"Mark of favor? What does that mean?"

"It means that he's chosen you to be his wife."

"What?!"

"I guess that would explain his reason for hiding in the girl's bathroom. Sounds like a perverted little reptile. No doubt he will be coming for you soon."

"Wait?! Coming for me?!"

"Correct, your headlessness has resulted in your betrothal to a snake."

"But I can't marry a snake! Oh God that sounds like all sorts of wrong!"

"Don't worry I won't allow anyone to lay a finger or scale on you."

Manny knew how crafty and sneaky vision serpents were. They were extremely fast, could blend in with almost any surrounding, grow or shrink, they could take on human form, and their most dangerous and clever move of all. Their visions. The vision serpent earned it's name because with one look they could project any vision or image that could frighten anyone so much that they couldn't move allowing them to be easily defeated. Luckily feline naguals like Manny were immune due to their cat like eyes that could reflect light and allow them to see through any vision. But humans like Frida stood no chance against it.

Suspecting that the serpent would strike when she was away from the safety of their house, Manny decided to attend school with Frida under the disguse of a regular, human, teenager. So the nexrday he changed back into the t-shirt, leather jacket, jeans, and tennis shoes he wore the last time, made his tail disappear, and made his tiger ears look like human ears.

"Are you sure you need to go to school with me?" Frida asked him as they walked to school.

"Positive." He said.

"Look I appreciate the concern but I think I can handle a little snake."

"This is not a little snake we're dealing with. It's mystic serpent that can grow to the size of a dragon or make itself look like a regular human. So don't leave my side today alright?" He said holding her hand. "I don't know what I would do if you were taken."

"Oh...Okay." she said feeling flustered.

"Good because when a serpent wants something it refuses to rest until it has captured it's target. Though why out of all the much better looking women he chose a chubby thing like you to be his bride is beyond me."

BAM! Frida smacked him right across his face with her hand bag.

"Jerk!"

At first the school board rejected Manny attending Leone High School due to him failing to provide a valid birth certificate and school records but Manny was able to convince them after offering them a very large amount of cash. One of the perks of being a spirit was that you were entitled to endless wealth. Tonio was one the richest spirits in Miracle City so it was only natural that Manny would have plenty of money to offer.

"Class I would like to introduce our newest student Manny Rivera." The teacher introduced as Manny stood in front of the class.

While some of the students were skeptical about him most of the girls immediately took a liking to him and found him attractive.

"That's the guy who brought Frida her lunch a month ago right?" One girl whispered.

"Oh my God he's so hot." Another said.

"Yeah but he looks so serious."

"You think he has a girlfriend?"

"Now then let's find you a seat." The teacher said.

"That one." Manny said pointing to the empty desk next to Frida.

As he walked down toward his new seat the girls continued to whisper about.

"No fair! Why does the cute guy want to sit next to Suarez?"

"You think he has a crush on her?"

"OMG you think he's her boyfriend?"

"She's so lucky."

Frida face palmed and shook her head in embarrassment.

"What's wrong with you?" Manny asked her.

"Nothing." She sighed.

Usually school days were rather quiet unless Aaron was around other wise the class was filled screaming and adoring girl fans. Aaron was absent today so you would think that class would be pretty boring but no. The girls could help but become extremely interested in Manny. He just ignored their staring and focused on making sure that no harm would come to Frida.

"So Manny where are you from?" One girl asked him.

"I'd rather not say toots." He responded barely paying her any mind.

"How old are you?"

"I am physically eighteen years of age."

"Are you Frida's boyfriend?"

"Frida is my mistress-"

"Ahh! Manny don't say that!" Frida said as she frantically dragged him into the hallway.

"What? What did I say?"

"Manny you can't say that you're my manservant to regular people."

"Manservant? I'm your familiar not your manservant!"

"Same difference. Point is no talking about this...Mistress stuff. All they need to know is you're room mate and all you do is help me pay the rent okay?"

"Hey Frida." A cheerful voice called from down the hallway. Frida recognized her as Eileen Larkin, a sweet and cheerful girl with ginger curls that would bounce whenever she moved. Despite being only seventeen most people thought she was younger due to being skinny and flat chested. "Listen the teacher is asking for you and your friend to come back to class."

"Okay tell him that we're coming."

"Alright and by the way I know it's late but thanks for saving me back with that ostrich incident."

"No problem."

The rest of the day was pretty mellow with nothing exciting happening at all. In fact the rest of the day was so calm and uneventful that by the end of class Manny had fallen asleep. Frida smiled when she saw him sleeping at his desk. She had to admit she liked having him at school today, she hoped that he would keep attending with her.

"Oh I forgot to get my homework assignment from Mr. Posada."

She got up from her seat and went to look for her teacher. As she walked toward his office she had the feeling that someone was watching her. She checked behind and around herself several times but saw no one and nothing. Finally just when she thought nothing was wrong and that she was only imagining things she heard a voice say.

"Miss Frida." She turned in the direction of the voice and saw a young man standing behind her smiling. He looked kind of akward. Who was this guy? And how did he know her name? "So nice to see you again, shall we go?"

"Go? Go where? Who are you anyway?"

He only gave her a chuckle and looked at her. Suddenly she felt an intense fear grip her heart and a chill run up her spine. There was something about this guy that she didn't like and she wanted to get away from him but she found herself unable to move. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she move? What was happening? And that was her last thought before she blacked out.

"Frida!" Manny instantly woke up when he sensed that she was in danger. When he saw that she was gone he got up and began to frantically search for her while following her scent but she was no where to be seen. The only trace of her he found was her hand bag that layed on the floor. He picked up the bag and sniffed it. The handbag wreaked of reptile, supernatural reptile.

"Damn snake!" He growled. "When I find you I shall slice you into picadillo and use your skin to make a belt!"

...

When Frida awoke she found herself lying on the floor of an unfamiliar place. She seemed to be in some house but something about it didn't seem right.

"Good morning Frida did you sleep well?"

She looked up to see the man she had seen from last night standing at the door of the room.

"You again!"

"I see you remember me, how nice."

"Wait a minute what's going on here? Where am I? And who the heck are you?"

"I am Nigel a vision serpent and divine familiar to Chiquita the spirit of the east who is taking a nap in the next room." He pointed over to a closed bedroom.

"Why have you brought me here?"

"You'll have to speak up I'm a little hard at hearing."

"Why have you brought me here?" She asked in a louder tone.

"Oh do you not know? I brought here because I have chosen you to be my bride."

"Oh crap! I forgot about that! This is not good!"

"Don't worry my dear I shall be a dutiful husband and you shall be very happy here and Chiquita has already blessed our marriage."

"Are you crazy?! I'm not marrying you!"

"Oh? Perhaps you are confused, the mark on your arm signifies our engagement."

"But I never agreed to this! And besides you wouldn't want me for a wife anyway."

"Why ever not?"

"Well I can't cook or clean so there's no way I can play the role of house wife, I can't lay eggs so offspring is out of the question, and I'm not really that much of a looker so you'll only be disappointed."

"Don't be silly my dear I shall handle all the cooking and cleaning, I do not need offspring when I have you, and you are quite beautiful. In fact I've never seen a human with beauty like yours, had I not smelt your human blood I would've mistaken you for a niad."

"Oh thank you, that's very swee- Wait a minute! Flattery won't work pal! I'm not getting married to anyone and I'm going home right now!"

He just chuckled.

"What?"

"You're a very pretty but very silly girl. You can't leave this place."

"Oh yeah? Watch me."

She went to the door that lead out of the house and began searching for a road or something that might lead her back home. It was very dark outside and a little hard to see, due to it she ended up tripping and falling down a few times and she thought that she gotten lost once or twice until at last she saw a light. But was horrified to discover that it was the same place she had just left.

"Did you have a nice walk my dear?" Nigel asked.

"What? But how?"

"Come again?"

"How? Maybe I took a wrong turn."

"No matter what route you take or what direction you take it will bring you right back here."

"You mean...I can't ever leave?"

"No but don't worry soon you won't want to leave."

"Fat chance of that happening."

"You seem tense, would you like to go to bed?"

"Go to bed with you! Ick! You keep your scaly self away from me you perv!"

"Relax I'm not gonna try anything I promise. Here let me show you to your quarters."

He led her to a bedroom.

"Try to get some rest, you'll need your strength for the wedding feast."

"Listen you little weirdo you won't keep me here for long because eventually my familiar Manny is going to come find me and I don't think he'll be very happy about you kidnapping me."

"I hate to disappoint you but he'll never find this place and I don't expect him to try. In fact I expect him to be relieved and overjoyed that you're gone."

"Why on earth do you think that?"

"Well he hates humans and I doubt he ever liked the idea of being a human's familiar and if you stay here and marry me he won't have to serve you and will be free to do whatever he wants."

"You're wrong! He'll come find me! And then you'll be sorry!"

He only chuckled and shut the door leaving her alone in the room.

"You'll see. He'll find me...I hope." She sighed,

She sat on the bed in her room and wrapped her arms around her legs while resting her head on her knees. Deep down she couldn't help but worry that maybe he was right. Manny wasn't thrilled in the least when he became her familiar. In fact he had made a huge fuss about humiliating and horrible it was to be serving someone like her. What if he didn't come? What if he was happy that she was gone? What if she spent the rest of her life here married to a snake? Oh God what was she going to do?

Not sure what to do at the moment she decided to do whatever she did whenever she was scared or sad. She sang a song that her mother used to sing to her and her sisters before bed every night. Singing always made her feel better when things looked bleak. In a way it gave her hope when things looked hopeless.

 _"A fine bluejay flew by in May and_ _sang for his lady day._

 _Then summer's sun called the spun and_ _he took himself away._

 _Don't cry for me while I be gone th_ _ought it an eternity seems._

 _While we are apart I'll follow my heart and_ _come to you, come to you, come to you in your dreams."_

And she just continued to sing that song fearing that Manny had abandoned her and was enjoying her missing presence. Little did she know that it was just the opposite. He was worried out of his mind and desperately searching for her with Tia and Pablo.

"Oh how terrible! Frida has been abducted!" Pablo cried.

"She has been taken from us to be the bride of a serpent! We are done for!" Tia shrieked.

"Shut up you're making my head swell!" He snapped.

He was very sick with worry. He still couldn't believe that he had failed to protect her. He had let her out of his sight for one moment and just like that she was gone. He could just imagine how scared she was and it frightened him to think that she might be hurt.

"Damn it! Where could she be?" He thought. "I'be tracked down nearly every vision serpent in the area and not one of them has her. It might be a lost cause but I will find her, no matter what."

"What if we never find her?" Tia said.

"What if she is lost to us forever?" Pablo said.

Hearing the two aluxes say things like that didn't help Manny's worry lessen. He didn't understand whyour it was so hard to find her. He had incredible sight yet for some reason his eyes couldn't see her anywhere. He tried sniffing out her scent but couldn't pick it up no matter how hard he sniffed. How could he find her if he couldn't see or smell her? Then his hearing caught hold of a faint sound. A voice.

"Be quiet you two! I think I hear something!"

He used his strong hearing to tune out any sound except for that voice. It was a young woman's voice and it was singing.

 _"One day in spring she heard him sing a song to her delight._

 _And back again came her friend to warm her summer night._

 _Don't cry for me while I be gone thought it an eternity seems._

 _While we are apart I'll follow my heart and come to you, come to you, come to you in your dreams."_

It was beautiful and sad and familiar. That was her. That was Frida's voice he was sure of it. True he believed that he had never heard her sing before but he had no doubt in his mind that it was her voice. He'd bet his life on it. Something inside him just told him that was her. He quickly perked up his ears and began to follow the singing. Following he realized that she was being held in a barrier that wouldn't allow anyone or anything to be seen or smelt and yet it allowed them to be heard. All at once he knew exactly who had her. It turns out Nigel was very hard of hearing and due to that he would often forget that others could hear better than him so he never bothered to make his barrier sound proof.

"So that's where you're keeping her you sneaky deaf reptile! Just wait til I get my claws on you!"

Back at the house Frida had gotten hungry and began searching for something to eat. As she searched she stumbled on to Chiquita's bedroom. Come to think of it why hadn't this spirit shown herself yet? Was she still asleep? No...No something wasn't right. She went to the bedroom and opened the door. There was no one in that room. There was no spirit.

"What are you doing in there?" Nigel asked. "You musn't disturb Chiquita!"

"Cut the act dude! There's no one in there! There is no spirit is there?"

Nigel sighed and began to look very sad. Like he had just lost someone he loved very much.

"Chiquita used to live here but one day...She had to move on."

"Move on?"

"Sometimes when spirits are not needed they move on to join nature. It was fifty years ago when Chiquita moved on, she told me not to be sad but I couldn't help but cry because she was like a mother to me and now that she's gone I'm all alone."

Frida tried to be irritated and angry with him but seeing him looking so sad and glum made it hard and before she knew it she found herself feeling pity for him.

"I'm sorry about your spirit being gone and I can understand how lonely you must be." She comforted. "I kind of know what that's like and I think Manny does too. No one should be alone."

"Then you do understand, you'll make a wonderful wife."

"Now wait a minute that doesn't mean I want to marry you. I'm sorry but I can't stay here, I have to go home."

"No please! Please love me!" He grabbed her waist and lower area.

"Ahhh!" Frida screamed and started kicking him. "Get off me! What's wrong with you?! You said that you weren't going to try anything with me!"

"I know but we are closer now." He replied with a lustful grin.

He then grabbed her arm and pinned her down while hovering over her. Frida struggled to get away from him but he was too strong.

"No wait! Please don't! Help me! Manny!" She screamed fearfully.

And just before Nigel could do anything a tiger roar was heard and a flame broke down the door. Standing at the door's remains much to Frida's relief was Manny and when he saw what Nigel was about to do to her he looked like he was about to explode with a great rage.

"You dare to lay a hand on my lady and mistress?!" He growled. "I hope you are prepared to pay severely for you have done!"

"You found me." Frida said with joy and relief.

"Step away from her!" He demanded throwing a flame at Nigel scaring him off of her. He then threw his arms around her and held her protectively. He was beyond relieved that he had finally found her and nor a moment too soon. Had he been any later Nigel could've hurt her in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable. "You're safe now, thank goodness."

She was surprised by how he was acting toward her. He was holding her as if he let go she would be gone forever. She couldn't remember the last time anyone held her. His arms felt so safe and warm, she found herself becoming overwhelmed and began to form tears.

"You're late." She said hugging him and laying her head on his shoulder.

"How did you find this place?" Nigel asked. "I had it safely hidden under a strong barrier do could you have possibly found this place?"

"Well I must admit I had a lot of trouble finding this place considering that your barrier prevents anything under it from being seen or smelt but you didn't exactly make this place sound proof. Hearing Frida's lovely singing was all I needed for me to find your exact location and now you scaly thief the time has come for you to pay for stealing my lady and mistress."

Waves of green fire shot out from his finger nails and began to burn down the house. Nigel tried to put out the fire with his powers but it was no use, the fire was too strong.

"You know if you never gave me a reason to find you here you'd still have your home loss 1, I am taking Frida back with me so you've lost your bride loss 2, loss three shall be your life." He threw another flame which Nigel dodged. He fled from the fires only for Manny to chase him until he had him cornered. "Now let's see how shall I kill you? What kind of death would suit a sneaky, perverted, and thieving serpent like you?"

Nigel looked at Manny with fear in his eyes while Manny gave him a look of pure ruthlessness with no mercy. Not sure what else to do he fell on his knees and began to weep.

"Please! I meant no harm I just...I've been alone for so long. Ever since Chiquita moved on it's just been me by myself! I couldn't bear to alone any longer! You can understand that right Manny?"

Manny seemed to calm down.

"Believe me I can understand exactly how that feels...But that doesn't excuse your crimes! I have decided that you shall be burned into ashes!"

Manny made the biggest fire he could and aimed it right at him. Tears were running down Nigel's cheeks as he shielded his eyes and prepared himself for his hot, burning, seething, death.

"Manny that's enough." Frida ordered.

"What?"

"That's enough. Put it away."

Manny grumbled then snuffed out the flame in his hand. Frida then walked over toward Nigel and gave him a gentle smile.

"Listen Nigel I can't stay with you. I have to go home now but I promise I'll come see you whenever you get too lonely okay?"

Nigel nodded then smiled back. After that she left with Manny who she noticed looked pretty upset.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked.

"Nothing."

"You're not upset because I promised to see Nigel are you?"

"No. Why would I be upset about that? Because you promised to see him again right in front of me? Even though he kidnapped and assaulted you? No of course not!"

"Hey don't worry I gave him a good bash on the head for that."

"Why would you want to see him again?"

"Because I feel sorry for him. I mean he's all alone that's terrible. You wouldn't want that to happen to you would you? What if I were to die and you were left all alone? I'd be heartbroken."

Manny flinched then noticed the bleeding scrape on her knee.

"You're hurt?"

"Oh yeah I tripped earlier but it's no big deal."

It was to Manny. She merely trips and she bleeds, he hated to think of what would happen to her if she were to fall from a tree, get hit by a car, shot by a gun, or worse. She was such a delicate and fragile thing. If he failed to keep her safe he wasn't sure what he would do.

"Manny?" Frida said interrupting his thoughts.

"What?" He looked up to see her smiling at him.

"You came for me, thank you."

He blushed and looked away from her.

"Whatever let's go home."


	5. Chapter 5

It was a rather dull day, clouds were gray but no rain fell and no thunder was heard. Manny was in the kitchen preparing lunch, thinking that it would just be another day of dealing with Frida and the usual difficulties she would give him. But he would soon be proven wrong when there was a knock at the door.

"Who could that be?"

He went to answer the door not at all prepared for what who would be on the other side. He opened the door and became horrified at the sight of the person standing there. She an extremely attractive woman with skin like paper and long shiny black hair that when down to her ankles while her eyes were a piercing purple shade that could stop a person's heart.

"Zo...Zoe?" Manny choked.

'Hello Manny." She replied with a seemingly emotionless look.

"Wha...What are you doing here?" He asked trying not to sweat.

"Manny." She said. "I never thought I'd see you again, I've spent centuries trying to find you and now that I have."

She had rage and fury in her eyes and her lips were in a perfect frown. At first he thought she was going to kill him.

"We can be together again!"

Her calm, angry demeanor quickly faded into a teasing one as she tackled him to the floor and began to run her arms, hands, fingers, and legs all over his body while guiding his hands toward her butt.

"Gaaah! What do you think you're doing Zoe?!" He cried desperately trying to escape her grasp.

"Oh Manny I'm so terribly sorry for what I did to you! I didn't mean it! I was just angry! But I was so relieved when I found out you were still alive!"

"What are you talking about?! Get off of me!"

"Come darling let us continue where we left off!"

"Wait a minute! You're going way too fast!"

"Take me now my beloved."

"Wait! Stop! Don't you have any decency or shame? This is disgraceful! Unhand me woman!"

"Oh I love it when you play hard to get!"

"You always were shameless! Zoe please! I'm a familiar! I can't do this!"

As if things couldn't get any worse Frida walked in.

"Hey Manny have you seen my-" You can imagine the instant disgust she felt when she saw Manny on the floor with another woman on top of him trying to undress herself. Manny's cheeks were red with horror and embarrassment, hers was red with anger and repulse. "What is going on here?!"

"Frida I can explain! This is not what it looks like!"

"You disgusting pervert! What, you're so desperate to get your fix that you lack the decency to do it in private?!"

"No you got it all wrong!"

"Darling who is this ugly creature?" Zoe asked.

"Manny who is this dirty tramp?"

"Dirty tramp?!" She hissed. "You dare to speak to me that way!"

She released Manny and sized Frida roughly by her neck. Poor Frida found herself unable to breathe and struggling to get out of her intense grip.

"I shall drag you down to the netherworld!"

"Zoe don't you dare harm her!" Manny snarled. She turned in the direction of his voice and found him glaring at her with a green fire in his hand. "I'm warning you Zoe if you hurt her I'll have no choice but to take your life."

Zoe's demeanor became extremely cold and envious when she heard those words. She then turned her gaze toward Frida then back at Manny.

"Why?" Zoe asked. "Why should I spare this human girl? You didn't seem to mind watching me slaughter impudent mortals like her centuries ago."

"No it can't be." She thought. "Don't tell me that you've given your heart to a mortal woman...Not again."

"I'll have you know Zoe that this woman is the new south spirit and I am her famailar therefore I must protect her with my life." Manny said.

"Her famailar? Oh Manny it pains me to see you demoted to serving a mortal."

"It is none of your business! Now release her!"

He prepared to throw his fire only to get hit on the head by a small mallet that she pulled from her sleeve. Then poof! The intimidating young nagual had been replaced by a small child.

"Manny?" Frida gasped as she broke away from Zoe and went to his side. He was a short young boy about maybe five to eight years old, he was pretty cute and he looked like a normal looking child except for his ears and tail. "Manny is that you?"

"I feel a little strange Frida, do I look okay?" He said in a little squeaky voice."What happened to my voice? And when did you get taller?"

"Uh Manny..."

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well you...You've been turned into a kid."

"What?! What are you talking about?"

She grabbed a small mirror off the table and gave it to him. He looked at his reflection and found that she was telling the truth.

"What the- Now listen here Zoe! Change me back immediately or else!"

"Or else what? You'll throw a tantrum?" She chuckled before turning toward Frida. "And as for you."

Before Frida could even move Zoe put her finger on her forehead and the mark of the south spirit was removed and placed in the palm of her hand.

"Now I am the south spirit and you are nothing more than just a mortal girl so you're not welcome here. Manny if you wish to return to your normal size then you must agree to be my familiar, only then will I restore you. So what do you say to that?"

The little tiger eared boy only glared at her and threw a leaf made of sharp nettles at her face. She shrieked at the pain and in raged she subjected Manny to a powerful shocking force and sent both him and Frida flying out of the house, landing somewhere in the park.

"If you change your mind you know where to find me." They heard her voice say.

"Well it's obvious that she's insane." Frida said rubbing her behind from where she landed. "Are you okay Manny?"

"I'm fine except for the fact that I'm now only 1 foot tall."

"What just happened? And who the heck was that?"

"Her name is Zoe, she's a xtabay who I had an affair with 489 years ago."

"Wait a minute I'm confused, don't xtabaies hate men and try to kill them because they think they're all pigs?"

"Yes they do but she was different. It all started 489 years ago, men from tribes and Spanish settlements had been mysteriously disappearing in the forest every night during a full moon. According to the women and very few men who had witnessed the disappearances, the one responsible for it was a strange, dark, but beautiful woman. I was rather curious about this woman so one night when the moon was full I disguised as a regular human man and went into the woods."

"What happened?"

"As expected she tried to seduce me and lure me into some dark cave so she could kill me but just before she could strike I revealed my true form and overpowered her, she became rather impressed and infatuated with me and I found her to be an exciting and spontaneous lover."

Frida make a look like she was disturbed.

"What? You know that I've bedded plenty of women."

"I know but hearing you say those words while you look like a kid makes you sound so messed up. Anyway so when did your relationship end?"

"Well the problem with Zoe was she had a terrible case of jealousy. She was always accusing me of fooling around with other women such as the tzitmitles."

"But you do fool around with them."

"Not when I'm in a committed relationship. I'm a lot of things but unfaithful is not one of them. Anyway eventually her envy and paranoia got the better of her and she ended up bedding with another man because I supposedly was unfaithful so I dumped her, needless to say she didn't take rejection well. I'm a little amnesic on the rest but according to Tonio I escaped her by faking my death sadly somebody squealed to her that I was still alive."

"But I don't understand, why is she doing this?"

"Isn't it obvious? She took your mark so she could become the new south spirit and she turned me into a child hoping that it would convince to become her familiar and be at the mercy of her complete control. In other words this is all just a scheme to force me to be her lover again."

"So what do we do now?"

"We? Um...You do I'm not your familiar anymore right? So you have no use for me especially now that I'm stuck like this."

"So? We're still friends right?"

"Friends?"

"Yes and friends help each other no matter what."

Manny sighed. This girl was so strange. He was no longer her familiar or a useful nagual so why on earth did she want to help him? Why did she consider him her friend?

"What?"

"Nothing except...I'm not used to people...Actually wanting to help me unless...Something is in it for them."

He felt hot and dizzy. It was hard for to stand up and his words were getting slurred.

"Manny? Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

He didn't answer. Instead he fell to the ground unconscious. Frida rushed to his side and felt his forehead. He had a fever, a high one. As if on instinct she found herself cradling him in her arms and stroking his dark hair as if he were her own little brother. What was she supposed to do? Should she take him to a doctor? Yeah right like she could afford a doctor's help and besides what the doctor say when she brought in a little boy with tiger ears and a tail.

"What am I gonna do?" She wondered.

"Frida?" She heard a voice from behind her say. She turned to see tgat it was Aaron.

"Aaron?"

"Yeah hey, what are you doing here and who's the kid?"

Not sure what else to do she told Aaron the whole story and to her surprise he allowed her and Manny to stay at his penthouse. Frida quickly tucked Manny into Aaron's bed and placed a cold compress on Manny's forehead. He was burning up and sweating while at the same time looking pale and shivering.

"He's turned into an awfully cute little thing huh?" Aaron observed at the sleeping boy.

"Yes but I'm really worried. Listen you're a creature right?"

"Yes I am but don't blab it around town so much."

"Well I'm looking for a doctor who might be able to help him."

"That won't do any good. What's wrong with him is that his powers haven't gotten used to his new body and now it's got his health out of wack." Aaron walked over to a shelf and grabbed a small tin of pills. "I got something that might help."

"What is it?"

"It's a special medicine that my family made up. It won't change him back but it'll bring down his fever." Aaron unscrewed the cap on the tin, grabbed one pill, and using his finger opened Manny's mouth. "Say ahh, be warned it's bitter as hell and try to be a little more grateful to me for helping you cat boy."

Obviously he's still pretty bitter over the ostrich incident.

"Um Aaron maybe I should be the one to give him the medicine." Frida said. "And I really don't think you should have your fingers in his mouth."

"Why?"

CHOMP! Manny bit Aaron's finger hard enough to draw blood.

"Yeah that's why." Frida said.

"Ahhhh!" Aaron screeched in pain. "Oh God! Are those teeth he has or daggers?!"

Frida fought the urge to laugh as she placed the pill in Manny's mouth while helping him swallow it with a cup of water. After that she went to get a thermometer and take his temperature.

...

Manny hated being sick, he hated feeling like he needed someone to take care of him. When he was like this all he could do was sleep. Usually when he slept it was a dark, quiet, and dreamless sleep. But this time it was different. This time he had a dream. In the dream he was still in a child state and he was in a bedroom that he was sure that he had never seen before and yet it seemed familiar.

"I hope you're feeling better." He heard a gentle voice say. "Here you can have a cup of spanish chocolate if you want."

Spanish chocolate? Where did that come from? And where was he? But more importantly who was this person? By the sound of their voice he guessed that it was a woman.

He then felt a soft hand gently caress his hair while a lovely yet familiar voice began to sing to him. That voice was beautiful and that touch was softer than anything he ever felt. It all reminded him of when his mother used to sing to him and tend to him. Curious he turned to see who the person caring for him was.

It was indeed a woman. A young woman who seemed very familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on who she was. Well whoever this woman was he knew one thing for sure. She was beautiful. In fact she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had fair skin, a curvy body, medium breasts, adorable rosy cheeks, a gentle smile, pretty blue eyes, and her hair. Her hair was a most unusual color. It was...It was...It was...But before he could identify what color it was he woke up.

"Huh? Where am I?"

"Manny!" Frida cried cheerfully before pulling him into a hug that nearly choked him. "I'm so glad you're alright! I was really worried!"

"Frida I can't breathe!" He muffled under her grasp.

"Oops! Sorry!" She said releasing him. "So how are you feeling? Can I get you anything?"

He thought back to his dream about the girl giving him the cup of Spanish chocolate.

"If it's not too much to ask." He said. "I would like a cup of Spanish chocolate."

"Sure thing. Aaron!"

"What?"

"I need your kitchen and some money!"

"Money?!"

It took a little convincing but she was able to borrow money from Aaron and use it to buy sugar, milk, vanilla, cream, cinnamon, and old fashioned, unsweetened, chocolate from Spain. Then using his stove she melted down the chocolate and mixed it the milk, sugar, and cream until it became a rich, warm, creamy, brown liquid. Finally she poured the mixture into a cup and added the vanilla and cinnamon to it.

"So you actually know how to make this stuff?" Aaron asked her.

"My mother used to make it for me when I was little. My family grew up here in Mexico but they originated from Spain and chocolate was a popular dessert in Spain so it was only natural that my family knew how to make it."

She went into Aaron's bedroom and handed Manny the cup.

"Here you go Manny, I hope you like it." She said smiling.

"Average." He responded after drinking it. "I've had better.

"Cute on the outside still as rude as ever on the inside." Frida huffed. "Well I'm going to clean up the kitchen, call me if you need anything."

"Frida."

"Yes."

"Thank you."

She smiled.

"You're welcome."

For the rest of the day it was very calm until bedtime.

"I'm not gonna sleep in my own bed so sleep on the couch!" Aaron complained.

"So Manny can sleep in the bed?" Frida said.

"Like hell! Damn tiger! He can sleep on the floor!" Aaron kicked Manny into the floor then gently grabbed Frida's face flirtiously. "But I don't mind you in my bed."

Manny growled then threw one of his sharp leaves at Aaron's head. This one was sharp enough to sting like crazy and make Aaron bleed a little.

"I will kill you tiger! I will kill you!" Aaron shouted while trying to stomp on Manny who kept throwing the leaves.

"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Frida cried hitting Aaron with a pillow and trying to get him off of Manny.

The three of them fought until they passed out on the bed from exhaustion. When Frida woke up she was clutching Manny in her arms while sleeping next to Aaron. She thought she would die of embarrassment. She then quickly got out of bed before either of them woke up. Later that day Frida asked Aaron if he knew how to change Manny back.

"I don't know Frida I kind of like him this way." He said giving Manny noogie. "He's so cute "

"Don't be so rough with him!" Frida said grabbing Manny and holding him protectively. Manny blushed at this. He didn't really like the fact that he needed to be protected and cared for by Frida. In fact it pained him. It made him feel useless.

"Okay look if you wanna get him back to normal all you have to do is hit him with the mallet again." Aaron said. "But if it's in Zoe's hands then it won't be easy. She is one crazy bitch."

"You think I don't know that? Still he can't stay like this forever."

Frida sighed in frustration. After that she began to think of how she was going to get the mallet away from Zoe. For hours she thought and still nothing. By then she noticed that Manny was being awfully quiet and went to check on him only to find him gone.

"Huh? Where did he go?" She wondered.

She searched for him but couldn't find him anywhere however she did find a black crow feather.

"Hmm...Looks like Zoe grew impatient and decided to abduct him." Aaron hypothesized.

"What?! Oh no! What do I do? Aaron can you help me?"

"Me? No way! Sorry Frida but funfact Xatabies are stronger and more dangerous than chonchons so I don't really stand a chance against her also I have a concert tonight."

"But I can't fight her! Not by myself!"

"Sorry but you're on your own."

She let out another sigh and dropped to her knees not sure what to do. Aaron grabbed his keys and headed for the door but stopped just as he put his key through the hole.

"There are other ways to beat her."

"Huh?"

"If you can't beat her with power or strength then beat her with your brain. Challenge her, play a little game with her, there's a small chance you'll win but she won't refuse. Her kind takes pleasure in watching others try and fail however if you manage to beat her she has to keep her end of the bargain no matter what."

"You sure that'll work."

"Well there's no grantee you'll win but if you do she can't go back on her word. One a creature gives their word he or she is bond by the laws of God, the devil, and nature to keep it. If a creature breaks their word it's an instant death."

"Thanks for the advice."

Frida wasn't sure if she could beat a supernatural being especially now that she was a regular human girl again but she had to try. For Manny's sake. Gathering up as much courage and determination as possible she made her back to Tonio's house where she found Zoe sitting on a chair dropping her long, talon like fingernails on the chair's arm, her eyes seemed to be filled with more irritation and anger than ever before.

"Where's Manny?" Frida asked.

"Whatever do you mean?" Zoe asked faking ignorance.

"Don't play dumb! I know you took him! Now where is he?!"

"I had him locked away somewhere because he refused to kiss me."

"I thought you would force a kiss on to him."

"Oh how I wish I could but I can't! Years ago he tricked me into promising that I would never force a kiss on to him ever! So I plan to keep him locked up until he gives in."

"So Aaron was right." Frida thought. "Like it or not she has to keep her word."

"Alright let's cut to the chase you don't like me do you?"

"What gave it away? My dirty looks or the fact that I tried to kill you?" Zoe asked sarcastically.

"How would you like to see me fail and then experience the joy of ending my life?"

Zoe's purple eyes seemed to light up with interest and pleasure. Like a child who had just been told by her mother that she could go to her favorite amusement park if she did a chore.

"I'm listening."

"I have a little game that I wanna play."

"What kind of game?"

"A finding game in which I have to find Manny."

"What if you don't find him?"

"If I lose you can kill me, I won't resist or runaway. You can take my life."

Zoe thought for a moment. She liked the idea of watching this woman try to beat her and fail at it. Oh how she would gloat about it to her when she lost and her glee would only grow as she tore the girl apart with her talons.

"I like it and if you somehow win this game?"

"Then you change Manny back and give me back my mark."

That made Zoe reconsider it for a moment.

"What's the matter? Scared you'll lose?" Frida taunted.

"Of course not! You have yourself a deal."

"Wait! Swear to me that you'll change him back and give me back mark if you lose! Give me your word or no deal!"

"Oh right!" Zoe said annoyed. "Very well. I give you my word that if you by some miracle beat me I'll change him back and return your mark. If I break my word may I suffer certain and immediate death. There? Satisfied?"

"Yes."

"Good but don't hold your breath I never lose at games."

"There's got to be first for everything right?"

Frida began to search the house for Manny. She checked her bedroom, his bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, the dinning room, the living room, the attic, the basement, the garden, she even checked under the house. She looked under beds, in closets, under sinks, in cupboards, in shelves, under the stairs, behind curtains, she even looked in jars and small boxes but there was no sign of him however while searching in one of the boxes she found a sliver key. Thinking it could be useful in the future she stuck it in her dress pocket. Just when she was beginning to fear that she would never find him she saw a small light glowing in the distance.

Walking closer toward the light she saw that the light was a firefly. That was odd, it was much too cold for fireflies to be flying around and yet here it was flying right in front of her face while glowing almost as brightly as a star. The firefly then flew away down a corridor. She didn't know why but she felt like that the firefly was trying to help her so she followed it until it led her to a tall, sleak mirror that was hanging on the wall. Frida was confused. Why did the firefly bring her here?

As if the firefly could sense her confusion it flew toward the mirror and landed on it. But it didn't land on the reflective glass surface or the metal frame surrounding it. It was a key hole, she hadn't of noticed it until the firefly landed on it but the mirror had a key hole in it. She then remembered the sliver key she had found. She pulled it from her pocket, stuck it through the key hole, and turned the key a couple of times. The mirror's glass surface then opened like a door and behind it was Manny.

"Impossible!" She heard an angered shriek and saw Zoe standing behind her. "You shouldn't have been able to find him! How did you do it?"

"Doesn't matter how! I found him! I win now keep your word!"

Zoe hissed then reluctantly handed the mallet to Frida while placing the mark back on her forehead.

"Fine! You win this round! But it's not over! I'll be back!"

She then vanished in a flock of black crows that flew around her body. Frida then hit Manny on the head with the mallet and he was restored to his normal, teenage looking self.

"What a relief I didn't enjoy being that short." He looked over at Frida. "It seems that I owe you."

"That's right! You do! And I think you should-"

But she was cut off by his lips pressing against hers in a kiss making him a familiar again while also making her heart flutter.

"There I'm your familiar again." He said.

Frida blushed, she was kind of surprised that he willingly went back to being her familiar. She was also surprised by the sudden flustered fleeing inside of her.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"I'm fine."

"I must say I'm impressed. Nobody's ever beaten Zoe not even me. I guess I misjudged you."

"Yeah you did and on that lovely note, I'm hungry let's eat."


	6. Chapter 6

Frida felt like garbage the next morning. Her body felt hot, her head hurt, her stomach ached, and she was tired. She pulled herself out of bed and dragged herself over to the kitchen table that morning and when Manny served breakfast she felt like she was gonna throw up.

"Are you okay?" He asked her. "You look terrible."

"Thanks." She groaned. "I feel terrible."

She hung her head down and started to fall asleep on the table but she was snapped awake when she felt Manny touch her forehead.

"Uh Manny what are you doing?" She asked looking flushed.

"Just as I suspected you have a fever, get back into bed."

"No I'll be alright." She stood up, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door only to suddenly start feeling dizzy and faint. Manny quickly caught her swooning body and helped her up.

"No you're staying home today."

"But I can't miss school."

"Why not? School isn't important anyway."

"Maybe not to you but if I miss another day at school I'll be expelled."

"But you can't go anywhere in this condition you can hardly stand."

"I have an idea." Pablo said. "Frida why don't you stay here and send Manny to school disguised as you. He can make a very convincing woman."

"Really?"

Manny glared at Pablo while secretly vowing revenge on him for revealing that information. So Frida will be staying home and taking it easy today while Manny will be filling in for her in a very convincing disguise. He looked exactly like her except for his eyes, they were still brown because you know what they say about a person's eyes they're the gateway to the soul and no one can hide their soul. Anyway though Manny had everyone in school convinced that he was Frida he did not enjoy the act of cross dressing.

"Curse you Frida." He thought angrily. "I will make certain that you pay for this atrocity."

His ears then picked up the sound of teenage girls screaming excitedly as Aaron Hunt walked into the classroom after being absent for a few days.

"Hello ladies." He said smiling at them and causing them to swoon. "Morning Frida, how are things back at home?"

"Oh just wonderful." Manny said in a feminine voice while trying to mask his distaste for the young chonchon.

"Say there's something different about you though I can't put my finger on it."

Aaron looked at the supposed woman skeptically trying to figure out what was so different about her. However he couldn't figure out. Manny was relieved, at first he was worried that Aaron would be able to see right through him due to his supernatural senses but Aaron was just as easily blinded by his appearance as the humans.

"What?! The tiger goes here?!" Aaron cried when he found out that Manny was now a student at Leone High School. "Great! I was hoping to use my time at school to get close to Frida so could steal her spiritual mark but with Manny around I won't get a chance. I better act fast while he's not here."

Now Manny had never gone to school as a child since supernatural creatures had no need for typical human education however because of this he had a difficult time with keeping up with Frida's lessons and work as he was not used to it.

"Do you need help with that Frida?" Aaron asked him when he noticed that Manny was struggling with reading a textbook.

"No thank you." Manny replied coldly.

"You sure?"

"Are you deaf?"

"No."

"Okay then that means you heard my response now beat it."

All day Aaron tried to get close to Manny thinking that he was Frida. He invited him to eat lunch with him, continued to convince him to let him help him with his school work, he even asked him on a date.

"You're asking me on a date?"

"Yeah what do you say?" Aaron said.

"Why are even you interested in me? I'm no catch, I mean look at me I'm chubby everywhere."

"You don't look that chubby and not everyone likes tooth picks. Anyway the reason why I wanna date you is because you're so different from other girls and I like different."

Manny was no fool he knew exactly what Aaron was up to and why he was so interested in Frida and frankly it annoyed him greatly. He considered telling Aaron that he was really a man in disguise just to get him off his back but then he had an idea. He could tell him the truth or he could make sure Aaron stopped bothering Frida for good.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" He said. "I know for a matter of fact that this is just some ploy for you to steal my mark which you will never have so back off!"

"What? That's not true." Aaron said clearly lying. "Where would you get that idea? Did that crazy familiar of yours tell you that?"

"As a matter of fact he did."

"Well you can't always believe everything he says. The truth is all I want from you is your love and that familiar of yours is just jealous." He then took hold of his hand. "Here's what I really think of you."

Then much to Manny's horror Aaron kissed him on the mouth. In response Manny angrily punched him right his face knocking him down.

"Ugh! That tears it you overgrown chicken!" Manny cried out in his normal voice wiping his mouth then grabbing Aaron and slamming him into the wall. "If you ever touch Frida or me again! I'll kill you!"

"Manny?!"

"Yes it's me you idiot! I chose to fill in for Frida since she's sick!"

"Wait a minute! I kissed a guy! Oh gross!"

PUNCH!

"Imagine how I must feel to be a kissed by a repulsive chonchon! Ick! Now if you'll excuse me I need to cleanse my mouth!"

Manny went into the girl's bathroom which also served as the girl's locker room where he spat in the toilet, washed his face in the sink, and started gargling down soap. Once he finished he got the strangest feeling that someone was watching him. He looked around cautiously for any sign of potential danger while getting his claws ready to strike up a flame.

"Hey Frida."

"Ahh!" Statled Manny turned around to fire only to stop himself when he saw that it was just Eileen.

"Are you okay?" Eileen asked.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." He said once again talking in a voice that was like Frida's.

"Sorry I just wanted to tell you that gym class starts in five minutes you better get changed."

"Okay."

Manny then walked into a broom closet to change much to Eileen's confusion but if she knew that it was a man she had spoken to and that he was only changing in there to avoid being a perv she'd understand.

Pushing her confusion aside Eileen went into the locker room to get changed unaware that someone was spying on her. She had just changed into her gym clothes when out of nowhere the lights went out and something jumped out of one of the lockers and licked her cheek.

"Hmm...Strawberry." The figure said.

It was latge, fat, sweaty, and it resembled a pig.

"Ahh!" Eileen screamed and ran out of the lockeroom, bumping into Manny in the process.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" Manny asked.

"Frida there's a monster in the girl's lockeroom!" Elieen shrieked while hugging him fearfully. "It was big and scary and gross! It looked like a pig and it licked me!"

"I see, I'll handle this."

"Wait what are you going to do?"

"Simple I'm just going to get rid of the issue."

"But-"

"Stay out here and don't come in."

Manny walked into the lockeroom and shut the door. Using his feline eyes Manny was able to see in the dark and locate where the pervert was hiding. He then gave him a powerful kick and held him down to the floor with his foot.

"Please sir don't hurt me! I did nothing wrong! I was only looking at the pretty girls when they took off their clothes! There's no harm in looking is there?" The creature blubbered.

"A perverted pig quinametzin, no really much of a problem for me." Manny said in his normal voice. "However I must eliminate anything or anyone who poses as a threat to Frida. Plus one of my favorite things to do as a child was set fire to perverts who peeked at girls in the bathhouse so I'm going to enjoy this."

"Frida are you okay in there?" Elieen asked opening the door and getting Manny's attention which allowed the quinametzin to slip out from under Manny's foot then lunged toward Elieen with lust filled eyes.

"Hello cute girl! How about a kiss!"

He licked his lips with his tongue then puckered up to kiss her. Luckily Aaron was nearby and he quickly grabbed Elieen, pulled her out of the way, and kicked the quinametzin right in the face.

"Okay that's enough." Aaron said shielding Irene protectively.

"Aaron? What are you doing here?" Elieen asked.

"I heard there was a damsel in distress and rushed to help."

"Oh what hero." Manny said in his Frida voice. "Aaron make yourself useful and get that girl out of here."

He then grabbed the quinametzin, dragged him back into the lockeroom, slammed the door, locked it, and began to pound the perverted creature.

"Um what just happened?" Elieen asked.

"Don't worry about it." Aaron told her.

"But shouldn't we call the police?"

"I'll take care of that you just go on back to class okay?"

"But-"

Aaron smiles and gave Elieen a kiss on the cheek. She blushed and found herself unable to speak.

"Listen do me a favor and don't tell anyone about this alright?"

"Su...Sure." Elieen giggled. She then walked to class blushing and smiling.

Meanwhile back at the Tonio residence Frida had been sleeping for hours only waking up to use the bathroom. But eventually she got hungry and decided to get something to eat in the kitchen.

"Hey Frida are you feeling better?"

Nigel was in the kitchen cutting vegetables and putting them into a pot of water that was boiling on the stove.

"Nigel what are you doing here?!" She gasped.

"I heard you were sick and that Manny was gone so I decided to come over to take care of you."

"This wouldn't be another attempt to kidnap me would it?"

"Oh no! Trust me I've learned my lesson. I'm only here to help you get better, I promise."

"You do realize if Manny finds you here you're a dead man right?"

"Don't worry I'll leave before he gets back. You know I'm kind of surprised that he actually cross dressed as you and went to school but then again he can't disobey you if you give him an order right?"

"Well I didn't actually order him to do it, I asked him to."

"And he did it? Wow."

"Why so surprised?"

"Maybe because he's a vicious, cold hearted, blood thirsty savage."

"What are you talking about? He's not like that. Crude, rude, arrogant, and conceited yes but come on he's not a monster."

"That's right you haven't known him that long so you don't know about his past."

"Huh?"

"489 years ago before he became Tonio's familiar he used to be a wild tiger nagual who caused destruction and mayhem everywhere he went. He killed countless men, destroyed numerous villages, even terrorized some of the other creatures, I happened to be his favorite target of mistreatment! But I hear one of the worst things he did was rape a young woman."

"I don't believe that."

"Believe it baby. If you're not careful the beast will kill you in your sleep."

"Manny wouldn't do that."

Nigel huffed.

"It would seem that you need to see what he's really like." Nigel then pulled a burner from his sleeve and set it down.

"What's that?" Frida asked.

"It's a special burner that will take you back in time with this you'll be able to see what Manny was like in the beginning. What his true colors are, be warned though the process is temporary, your clothing may change, and you might end up changing future."

"Now wait a minute-"

But Nigel lifted up the lid of the burner and it released what appeared to be either steam or white smoke. Before she realized it she had inhaled it and everything had gone black. When she woke up she was lying on the ground in the middle of what appeared to be a jungle. It was pouring down rain along with thunder clapping and lighting striking here and there.

"Where am I?" She asked herself sitting up. Looking down she saw that her clothes had changed. She know wore an old red frock that looked like what a woman from the 1500's would where, a pair of worn out, brown, flat shoes, and a tattered, navy blue shawl that was worn over hair which was now wet and in disarray. "What the- What am I wearing? And what happened to my hair? And why am I in the middle of the jungle?"

"Is someone there?" She heard a voice squeak. Looking over to her left she saw what appeared to be a child lying on the ground looking hurt. She walked toward him, hearing her footsteps the boy opened his eyes and looked at her. "Oh you're still alive. Thank God."

"What happened to you?" She asked.

"I was attacked by an ahuiateteo! His name was Django! He slaughtered the entire village! He killed everyone! How did you escape?"

Frida was horrified, who would be so cruel as to attack an innocent child? She needed to find some shelter and tend to his wounds. She picked up the boy and searched for somewhere to rest. She managed to find an abandoned shack.

"This should do." She went inside the house and laid the boy down on the floor. "Now you wait here while I look for something to tend to your injuries, lucky we found this place huh?"

"I'm the lucky one." The boy said. "Who would've guessed that a pretty maid like you would actually escape? Such a fine virgin there's no way Django would pass over something like you."

She was about to question the boy about what he meant by that when suddenly the boy disappeared and in his place was a horrible monster. Before she could even think of what to do the monster grabbed her by her neck and pinned her down.

"Oh no! What do I do?" She thought feeling scared.

"Django always goes after the loveliest maidens leaving us with old crones but don't worry I'll devour you long before he gets his hands on you!" The monster snarled.

He opened his jaws and licked his long tongue all around his mouth and fangs as he brought his toward her. Frida couldn't breathe, she was so scared. All she could think about how frightened she was and how she hoped that she wouldn't die.

"Someone help!" She cried.

Suddenly green flames came through the door of the shack and hit the monster causing him to drop her. She watched as the creature slowly but surely burn away in the flames until nothing remained except ashes.

"Trash always does burn well." She heard a familiar smug voice say.

Looking up at the source she saw that the voice belonged to a young man. He was wild and feral looking but at the same time he looked very handsome and familiar. His clothes were familiar too. Black pants and a brown jacket just like the clothes Manny wore when she first saw him. Wait a minute! This man was Manny but he sure did look different. For one thing he had actual claws instead of just long fingernails, actual fangs instead of unsually sharp teeth, his tiger ears and tail still remained but he had more hair around his hands and face, not exactly a mustache or beard, in truth they looked more like whiskers. Whiskers that were a mixture of dark brown and white but the biggest difference of all were his eyes. They were not they're usual gentle brown eyes, they were these fierce green eyes that seemed to stare into her soul.

"So you're the village girl that everyone's talking about." He said grabbing her by the top part of her frock. "Well I can see what all the fuss is about you are quite beautiful."

"Me? Beautiful?" She thought confused. "This coming from the guy who called me a chubby and pathetic looking thing when we first met?"

"To be honest I've never been attracted to human women but then again I've never seen a specimen who looked like you before."

He was gripping her awfully tight and looking at her in a way that was very unlike him. Suddenly he tore off part of her frock that lay just above her bussom causing her to gasp.

"Lovely voice." He said smelling the part of her dress tgat he held in his claws. "And your hair, I've never seen a woman with hair like yours before though it is quite intriguing."

"My hair?"

He then grabbed her roughly by her chin just as he had done when they first met while giving her a sinister smile. "Cry out human."

"This isn't him." She thought and on instinct she bit his hand. He hissed and jumped back in shock. "Who are you?"

His shock demeanor quickly faded back into his sinister and frightening demeanor and he leaned in closer. He grabbed her face and brought it toward his as if he was about to force himself on her.

"Manny?" They heard a voice call from another room.

Manny huffed in annoyance, released her, and walked into the other room giving Frida a chance to slip out through the back door.

"There you are! Where have you been?" The second person in the shack asked.

"It was raining and you know I don't like to get wet." Manny said. "What are you even doing in this village anyway?"

"I came because I heard that there was a beauty here but all they had were just old hags and ugly women even those cows managed to get away."

"You mean a little girl gave you the slip? You are losing your edge Django."

"They call her Cristina. You haven't seen her have you? She is supposed to have beauty the rivals even the great La Muerte and that she has hair of an unusual color. You see anyone like that."

"No I can't say that I have." Manny lied.

Outside Frida was running like mad. She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Manny who was her trusted familiar had just attacked her. Surely she had imagined what had happened right? No it had happened, that was him, and he had attacked her. But why? Why was he like this? Then everything went black again. When she woke up she was back in her bedroom wearing her pajamas with Nigel looking at her.

"Welcome back." He said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Did you see Manny?"

"No I didn't see him." She lied not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing a part of Manny had frightened her.

"See who? Who were you not able to see?" Speak of the devil, Manny had returned home and when he saw Nigel he became very angry. "Why is there a snake loitering in here?!"

"Oh hey Manny, welcome home." Nigel said nervously. "I didn't think that you would be back til later."

"What the hell are you doing here?! What were you doing to Frida?!" Manny demanded enraged.

"I can't tell you." Nigel teased.

"Get out!" He then literally kicked Nigel out of the house and sent him flying. "That damn snake! Who let him in?!"

"I did." Pablo said.

"You what?!"

"Well he offered to take care of Frida."

"You let him in! After he kidnapped and assaulted her! Ugh! I'm surrounded by idiots!" Manny looked at Frida and his demeanor softened. "Frida."

"Yes?"

He gently put his hand to her forehead.

"You still have a fever. I'll make you something to eat."

He was so gentle and kind, the total opposite of the man she had just encountered moments ago. She couldn't believe that Manny behaved like that once. The way he had acted frightened her and she hoped that she would never have to see Manny like that again.


	7. Chapter 7

Frida tapped her fingers on her desk in annoyance as she watched all the girls in her class flirt with Manny and desperately try to get his attention. At the beginning Frida didn't mind having Manny go with her to school but recently a lot of the girls have been itching to get their hands all over him and it was really starting to bug her.

"Hey Manny wanna go shopping with me and my friends after school?" One pretty girl asked him while flipping her hair.

"Sorry but I don't do shopping." He replied not taking his eyes off of the book he was reading.

She gave a small giggle to herself. She was grateful that he didn't have any interest in other girls. She didn't know why but the idea of him being romantically involved with someone made her very uncomfortable.

"What's up tiger?" Aaron Hunt arrived at the classroom late as usual and as usual all the girls started fawning over him. "Still following Frida around like a dog?"

"What about you? Still shepherding a heard of naive sheep?" Manny replied.

"I'm surprised that Frida doesn't utterly despise you yet but she's bound to sooner or later."

"Well coming from someone she already hates you may have a point."

"She doesn't hate me!"

"How sad it must be not to realize what an annoying bastard you really are."

"I guess it takes one to know one cat boy!"

"You know that cats eat birds Aaron and I'm very hungry right now so don't push me."

Frida rolled her eyes like she normally did whenever those two bickered. She had been asking them to get along but for some reason those two were almost at each other's throats though from what she understood Manny seemed to hate Aaron less than Nigel due to the fact that whenever Nigel was around or even mentioned Manny would try to kill him while her back was turned.

Looking to her left she noticed that someone was spying on them from outside the classroom. Curious, she got up from her desk and went to investigate. It was Eileen.

"Eileen what are you doing?" Frida asked her.

"Oh nothing!" She said blushing and sweating.

"Don't lie! You were spying on us, don't you know how creepy that is?"

"Well I-"

"Why were you spying on us anyway?"

"Um...Well...I don't know if I should tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because it's stupid and you'll laugh at me."

"I won't I swear."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Alright I have a crush on Aaron."

"Huh. Really? I never took you as someone who fell for guys like that."

"I know. At first I thought of him as just some arrogant, pretty boy, jerk, but then he saved me the other day and he was very nice to me and he kissed me-"

"Whoa! Whoa! Time out! He kissed you?"

"Yeah but it wasn't on the lips, it was a harmless peck on the cheek but I've been wanting to thank him for saving me for quite sometime but I can't get the chance because he's surrounded by so many fans."

Frida smiled when she saw Eileen nervously twidle her thumbs while blushing. She decided to help her out.

"Don't worry Eileen just leave everything to me." Frida told her.

After class Frida went to stop Aaron.

"Hey Aaron."

"Oh hey what's up Frida?"

"Could you do me a huge favor?"

"What?"

"Stand right here for about maybe thirty minutes."

"Why?"

"Because there's someone who wants to meet you."

"Is it a girl?"

"Yes."

"Okay then I'll meet her."

"Great."

"Though I think she'll have a hard time getting past all the other girls who want to meet me." He chuckled.

"Oh don't worry I've taken care of that."

And when his back was turned she stuck a tailsman to his back that had the word air to all but Eileen on it. Meaning he would appear as air to everyone except her, mythical creatures, and Eileen and since air was something you couldn't see, Aaron was pretty much invisible to everybody else. For thirty minutes people walked past him and didn't acknowledge his existence which made him very confused and annoyed.

"Are you kidding me?" He grumbled in annoyance. "Thirty minutes and not one person has fawned over my presence! This superstar's presence?!"

"Aaron!" He turned to see Eileen running toward him excitedly but once she got there her excitement turned to bashfulness. "Uh...Hi Aaron. Listen I...I uh...I wanted to thank you for saving me the other day and also for taking the time to meet me here."

"I'm sorry but who are you again?" He asked her confused.

She felt crushed and embarrassed so instead of answering him she started to run away only to trip and accidentally flash her panties at Aaron and Billy (who happened to be walking by.) Her panties that had a strawberry on them. Aaron blushed and froze but Billy just burst out laughing.

"You wear strawberry panties just like a little kid! How old are you?!" He laughed at her.

"You pervert!" She said pulling her skirt over her underwear.

"Flat chested and little kid's underwear, man are you under developed Larkin!"

"Leave me alone Billy!" She said as tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.

"From now on I'm calling you Strawberry Larkin!"

"Cut it out!" Aaron said in an intimidating voice which sent shivers down Billy's spine. "So you finally saw a girl's underwear, big deal. You've probably never even touched a girl's hand because you're such a creep."

"Uh...Uh...I...Gotta go!"

Billy then took off with his tail between his legs. Once he was gone Aaron smiled at Eileen.

"Miss Larkin right?" He asked her.

"Yeah?" She said.

"May I ask for your first name?"

"It's Eileen."

"Well Eileen why don't I help you up?"

He offered her his hand, she accepted it and he pulled her up to her feet. From a distance Frida and Manny watched them and she was feeling very proud of herself. The meeting she had set up between them had worked perfectly.

"Looks like I'm getting the hand of this spirit business huh?"

"Guess again idiot!" He scoffed. "Have you forgotten that she's a human and he's a Chon Chon."

"So?"

"So they're not the same species!"

"Well there isn't that much of a difference is there? They both have arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes."

"Do they both have talons, wings, feathers, a gizzard, and a beak?"

"No but- wait Aaron has a gizzard and a beak?"

"You're missing the point. How do you think that girl is going to feel when she finds out the object of her affection isn't human? No doubt she'll either be afraid or disgusted."

"You don't know that for sure and besides haven't you ever heard the phrase love conquers all?"

"Have you ever heard the phrase don't lose your head over petty emotions?"

"Then learn it."

"What is with you and love? It's like your against it."

"In a sense I am but it is a part of life. A part of life that I don't like but nevertheless it's a part of life."

"You know I think the reason you're so against love is because you fell in love once and she rejected you."

"Don't be stupid. I don't go for that disgusting, lovey dovey crap."

"Well you may be unhappy about it but I made someone's day just a little brighter. And humans aren't that bad you know. Maybe you should try to get to know one, you might end up liking them."

"There's no point in getting to know any other humans. Right now all I care about is protecting you."

She blushed when he said that and her heart started pounding. What was happening? Why was it that whenever he said words like that she would always feel like this? Come to think of it he had been making her feel this way for awhile lately.

"Hey are you going brain dead or something?" He asked her when she went silent.

"No. Sorry I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Well you know how all the girls in my class flirt with you?"

"Yes and I find it very annoying."

"But don't any of them interest you?"

"Why on Earth would they interest me?"

"Well you once that they were pretty."

"So? I also think some birds and fish are pretty but I'm not interested in them. Why are you asking me this? Please tell me that you're trying to get me to be friendly with one of those excruciating girls."

"No. No but-"

"Because if you were then you would be wasting your time. In my eyes there is nothing in this world that takes greater priority over you. I mean that."

The very moment he finished saying those words Frida realized why Manny suddenly started to make her feel this way. She had fallen for him. Hard. She had never been one to develop romantic feelings for anyone not even as a child and due to that she often wondered if she was asexual or something but now. Now she had developed strong romantic feelings for her familiar.

Later that afternoon Aaron called Manny to a secret meeting between just the two of them.

"Okay bird brain what do you want?" Manny asked in annoyance.

"It's simple, I overheard your little conversation with Frida and became very worried about you. I've been around humans for quite awhile, you could say that I'm sort of an expert on them and I decided to give my foolish friend a warning."

"What conversation are you talking about?"

"Oh you know 'There's no one in this great big world that means more to me than you Frida. You're the only thing that matters.' I believe it was somewhere along those lines."

"I never said anything of the sort!"

"You can't be serious. Do you even realize what you're dealing with here? Frida may be the south spirit but she's also a teenage human girl and most teenage girls her age start looking for a mate."

"Is there a point here?"

"You should be careful with what say around her. She's naive and vulnerable in her own way, she may confuse the protection of the familiar with romantic affection. Unless of course she's found some way to touch that hardened heart of yours."

"Are you accusing me of seducing her?"

"I wouldn't put it past you after all you do have a reputation of getting frisky with the ladies."

"Yeah but there's one problem with your theory I've never been involved with a human woman. Humans repulse me."

"Do they now? Well if that's the case then I suppose you don't have a soft spot for her but if I were you I would be a little more discreet with my words less you want your lady and mistress to fall for you."

"Don't be ridiculous. As if she would fall for me, we bicker all the time. She says that I'm the most annoying person that she's ever met now exactly do you fall for someone who annoys you?"

"Oh boy are you clueless. That's how a lot of human relationships start out believe or not. Especially in movies and sitcoms."

"That's fictional media."

"But some of them are based on true events."

"Okay are we done here? Because nothing you have told me has made any sense."

"Fine but don't say that I didn't warn you."

At the end of the day Friday met up with to Eileen to talk about how things went with Aaron.

"So far things are good." Eileen said. "At least he knows that I exist."

"That's a great start."

"So I've been meaning to ask are you and Manny together?"

"Together?"

"You know are you boyfriend and girlfriend."

"No. No it's not like that. I mean we're close but not like that. He's just helping me pay the rent at the apartment where I live."

"But you're always together."

"Well I mean we are friends but I don't think that he would ever become my boyfriend. Besides I've met one of his ex girlfriends and after that meeting I don't think I'm his type."

"Maybe you just need to get him to see you in a new light."

"What do you mean?"

"Get him to take you on a date, do something fun with him, let him see that you're more than just his roommate."

"Okay."

After school Manny as usual was in a rush to get home but Frida wanted to take him out on a date tonight.

"Hey Manny why don't we do something fun tonight?"

"Like what?"

"Like...Like...Like go to the aquarium."

"What on Earth is an aquarium?"

"It's a place where you can look at different kinds of fish. Come on it'll be fun!"

Before he could object she grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him along to where the aquarium was. There weren't many people there so it wasn't crowded. It was filled with giant tanks containing all kinds of fish and sea life.

"What do you think? Pretty cool huh?" She asked.

"I think they're delicious." She heard Manny say.

"Delicious? What are you- Ahhh!"

She gasped to see Manny at the top of a tank trying to grab the fish swimming by.

"Manny no!"

"Mmmm?" He had a sea bass in his mouth.

"Manny spit that out and come down from there!"

He did as he was told.

"What? I'm just grabbing a snack." He told her.

"You're not supposed to eat the fish here!"

"You're not?"

"No."

"Then why the hell are they here?"

"So people can look at them."

"That's it? I thought that we were here to get some dinner. What a waste."

Frida rolled her eyes and they continued down the route of the section. Once they finished seeing everything Manny wanted to go home but Frida insisted that before leaving they go up to the top of a high building to look at the stars. Manny noticed that she was behaving differently and decided to see what it was that was making her act so strangely.

"Alright I'll bite, what's up with you?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been acting weird. I mean you've been way more cheerful and excitable this evening."

"I'm...I'm just having some fun."

"I need to ask you something. Have you been seduced by me?"

"What?!"

"Aaron mentioned that girls your age start looking for love and he warned me not to talk to you in a way that might make you fall in love with me. Of course I don't believe that you would do something so ridiculous but I just wanted some confirmation on the subject."

Frida blushed and started to fiddle with her hair nervously.

"What if it was true? What if I did like you?" She asked. "What would you say?"

Horror struck Manny's face.

"No." He said. "No. You're confused."

"No I'm not! What if I'm feeling love for you?"

"I will never allow myself to love a woman!"

With that said he grabbed her by her waist and carried her under his arm as he started walking across the rooftops of the building.

"Are you crazy?!" She cried. "What the heck are you doing?! We're going to fall!"

"I'm hoping that the cool night air will bring you back to your senses. Just admit that you misunderstood your feelings for me and I will let you down."

"I won't do it! Because I really do have feelings for you! You said that I was important to you!"

"Nevermind that!"

"So you never felt the same way about me?! And you never found me attractive?!"

Her blue eyes were overflowing. When he saw them he had the strangest feeling that he had seen those same tear filled blue eyes before. But when and where? As he tried to remember when and where he had seen those same eyes before his head started to hurt. The pain in his head caused his grip on Frida to slip and she fell from the building.

"FRIDA!" Horrified by what he had done he immediately jumped after her.

Frida was too heartbroken by his rejection to fully register what was happening. She just continued to cry more tears. She felt so stupid for thinking that he would actually return her feelings.

"Frida give me your hand!" Manny cried reaching for her.

"No don't help me!"

"What did you say?!"

He grabbed her wrist.

"Don't touch me!" She ordered.

The sacred word binding forced him to let her go.

"You idiot! Do you want to die?!" He shouted.

"If you never liked me then you can just stay away from me!" She cried.

"Frida please! I'm begging you! I promise that I will never touch you again but just this once you have to let me save you!"

And just before she hit the ground, he pulled her into his arms and landed safely on his feet. They were both panting and trembling. He held her tightly, afraid that in her sadness she might do something that could get her killed. She just clung to him while crying silently.

"Let's go home." He told her gently.


	8. Chapter 8

Last time we saw Frida she discovered that love was blooming in her heart and soon after had it ripped out and stomped upon. So now she's stuck in heartbreak city.

"Please eat something." Eileen told Frida at lunch time.

"I'm not hungry." She said glumly.

"I know you're upset about Manny rejecting you but don't take it so hard. Lots of guys reject me."

Frida knew that she shouldn't be so upset about Manny's rejection. After all he was against human-creature relationships but still she had never felt this way about anyone."

"You know what I think we need to get out and do something fun." Eileen said. "The Day of the Dead is tomorrow and they're having a feastival to celebrate why don't we go there together?"

"That does sound kind of fun but I don't know."

"Come on it will do you some real good."

"Alright."

So when Frida came home she started on her homework then got ready for tomorrow night. She wasn't just going to have fun at the feastival with Eileen, she was also going to pay her respects to the graves of her parents and sisters. However Manny didn't want her to go.

"What do you mean I can't go out on the day of the dead?" She said.

"I mean you can't." He said. "It's the time of the year where every spirit and demon is granted access to roam the earth. No doubt you'll be a prime target for some of them."

"So? You'll be there if something goes wrong."

"No I won't. I can't go out on Dia de Los Muertos."

"Why not?"

"Let's just say that back when I was a rogue nagual I did some things that were pretty stupid. One thing I did was anger a very powerful spirit in particular and he's had it in for me ever since. Luckily for me he's only allowed on earth for just three days but during that time I have to stay inside this house which contains a barrier that hides me from that spirit. So I can't go out and neither can you."

"I'm not staying in here for three days besides I promised Eileen that I would go with her to the feastival."

"Want my advice? Never make any promises."

"It's not fair! Who the heck did you tick off so bad that you have to hide from them?"

"It's none of your business just know that I can't go out."

"He can't but I can." Nigel suddenly appeared.

"How the hell did you get in here?!" Manny asked.

"The back door was left open. Anyway I love to go out on Dia de Los Muertos so I can protect you Frida."

"Really? That would be great." Frida said.

"There is no way I'm leaving you alone with him." Manny hissed.

"Look stay here or come with us. It's your choice." She said.

I bet you can probably guess what he picked. He ended up going but he made absolutely sure that he looked exactly like a regular human and he was on edge the whole time they were out. Now unknown to them Tonio was also out on Dia de Los Muertos, with him was his oldest friend Chakal the spirit of the West.

"Well look who's out on the Day of the Dead." Chakal pointed out.

"Manny out on Dia de Los Muertos?" Tonio said. "A very risky act for him but I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

"He looks scared of his mind though I can't say I blame him. I'd be the same way if I had angered you know who."

"I don't like how you find pleasure in my former familiar's misery."

"Well it serves the little punk right! Do you have any idea how many times he's shaved off my mustache?!"

"I don't know, I actually find that act fairly amusing." He chuckled.

At the feastival Frida and Eileen danced, played games, and enjoyed delicious food. Later when things started to quiet down Frida went to the cemetery.

"Why are we going to the cemetery?" Manny asked her nervously.

"To pay my respects to some deceased relatives of mine." She said.

"No. Bad idea. Bad idea." He said.

"What is the matter with you? Look if you're so worried about this spirit then you go home and I'll meet you back home."

She started walking to the graveyard.

"Frida no!" He grabbed her arm. She jerked it away from him and he went after her. As soon as his foot touched the graveyard soil a green flame burst out from the ground taking the form of a white bearded, black skeleton surrounded by green fire who held a staff in his hand.

"Hello Manny." He said in a sinister voice. "So nice to see you again after all these years."

Manny's face turned as white as paper and he started to tremble.

"Who are you?" Frida asked.

"I thought you would never ask. I am Xibalba spirit and keeper of hell and I have spent centuries looking for you Manny Rivera and now that I have finally found you, you shall that old debt you owe."

Before anyone else could even think of moving Xibalba snapped his fingers and Manny vanished in a puff of black smoke.

"Manny!" She gasped. "Where did he go? What did you do with him?"

"I've taken him to the land of the dead where he shall be punished for his crime." Xibalba answered.

"What crime?"

"Exactly 489 years ago that wild tiger nagual broke into my palace and stole my most prized possession. The medal of everlasting life, with it any injury or illness can be healed and no one can die from being injured. Ever since then I've spent every Dia de Los Muertos hunting him down so I can in prison him in the limbo of the land of the dead."

"No! You can't do that!"

"I can and I will! Now run along little girl, I have nothing to do with you."

"Wait! Uh...How about a wager?!"

Frida didn't know much about Xibalba but she remembered how in class when her teacher told them tales of Xibalba, he mentioned that he liked to make wagers.

"A wager you say?" He thought for a moment. "Now you're speaking my language. What do you have in mind?"

"I...I don't know...Um...Okay if you let Manny go I'll do you a favor."

"That's all you have to offer? Please, that's chicken feed."

"Come on I'll do anything. I swear."

"Okay but my favor comes first."

"Fine what do you want?"

"I want you to find my medal which that thieving tiger swiped."

"That's it? Fine. I'll find it."

"Don't be so nonchalant about it my dear I've spent centuries looking for it so I don't think you'll have any luck."

"Well I have to try. Now give me your word that you'll let him go if I bring you your medal back."

"You have my word that I shall return your precious tiger to you alive and unharmed if you bring me back my medal before Dia de Los Muertos ends."

He held out his hand to her. She shook it.

"By the ancient rules the wager is set."

With those words said Xibalba vanished in a crack of lightning and green flames. Frida immediately went to find Nigel.

"Time out you need what?" He said after she told him what happened.

"I need you to send me back in time so I can find the medal of everlasting life and return it to Xibalba." She said. "He took it before he became Tonio's familiar so I have to go back to the day he took it."

"Are you sure that you should do that?"

"I have to! If I don't then Manny is a goner! Please Nigel I'm begging you!"

"Alright, alright. I just hope you know what you're doing."

He pulled his burner from his sleeve and removed the lid. Frida inhaled it and like the first time she lost consciousness. When she woke up she found herself once again wearing an old red frock that a pair of worn out, brown, flat shoes, and a tattered, navy blue shawl. She got to her feet and when she heard a loud roaring noise she looked up to see Manny in his more fearal form clutching some in his hand.

"That must be the medal of everlasting life." She realized.

"It is."

"Nigel what are you doing here?"

"I'm only here as your guide. Nice outfit."

"Oh shut up."

Manny took off at an amazing speed. Nigel picked up Frida and followed after him while carrying him on her back. They followed him to a 1500's, Spanish style manor. He slipped into the window of a bedroom. Nigel and Frida hid and spied on him through the window. Inside the room was a beautiful young woman of Spanish decent who was sitting in bed. She was coughing into a handkerchief while keeping her head covered by a silk scarf. Manny went to her side.

"How are you feeling Cristina?" He asked her.

"Cristina?" Frida thought. "Funny that's my middle name."

"I feel so weak. It's hard to breathe." Cristina coughed.

"Don't worry once you swallow this you'll be able to recover." In his hand he held a skull shaped black medal.

"Now I remember." Nigel said. "489 years ago Manny fell in love with a mortal woman named Cristina and he stole that medal to save her from an illness she was suffering from."

"He...Loved her?" Frida said softly.

"Mmm-hmm. From what I hear she was the only woman he ever loved."

Frida felt her heart breaking all over again. Now she understood, Manny didn't reject her because she was human. He rejected her because he loved someone else. Someone from his past. But who could blame him? She was so beautiful.

"Why do you keep your head covered when I'm around you?" Manny asked Cristina.

"Because I don't want you to see my hair." She said.

"Why? It's beautiful."

"No. No my hair is a curse."

He sighed then kissed her cheek.

"I'll be back soon."

He left after that. The young woman called Cristina reached weakly for the medal left on her nightstand but as soon as she grabbed it she fainted and dropped it. The scarf fell from her head revealing her to have lovely crimson red hair. Frida quickly came in through the window and picked up the medal. She was just about to leave when she heard Cristina let out a small wail in agony. Looking back she saw that she was in a lot of pain. She was so pale, her face was burning red, and her belly was swollen. She was pregnant. Was Manny the father? That didn't matter right now. If she just took that medal then an innocent woman and an unborn child would both die.

"Just hang in there." She told her. "You and your baby will be fine."

"What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" Nigel asked her.

"She's sick and pregnant!"

"But you need that medal."

"I'll think of another way but I can't just let this woman die. Her or her baby."

She spotted a cup of hot tea on the nightstand. She dropped the medal into the tea, it dissolved instantly. Frida took the cup and gently put it to Cristina's lips. She poured the tea into her mouth and helped her swallow it.

"There we go."

After that they left the manor.

"So now what are you going to do?" Nigel asked her.

"I have no idea but there must be someway to get that medal without taking it from that woman."

They went outside to get some air and to think of another solution.

As they walked away the two of them bumped into an old hag.

"Hey girly give the medal of everlasting life that's inside of you and I'll grant you my all seeing eye." She said.

"Huh?" Frida said.

"Beat it you nasty old crone!" Nigel said.

"Wait a minute what did you say?" Frida asked. "The medal of everlasting life is inside of me?"

"Yes." The hag said. "It's in your stomach and if you give it to me I'll trade you my eye."

"Not interested lady." Nigel said.

"Nigel who is this woman?" Frida said.

"A xtabay who's lost her looks and is now trying to rip off mortals by making unfair trades. That all seeing eye of yours has gone blind and you know it."

"Okay so my eye isn't any good but I've got lots more to offer in exchange for that medal." The old xtabay said.

"Actually I don't want you to take the medal." Frida said. "I want you to get it out of me. Can you do that?"

"Of course I can. I can brew up a potion that will make you throw it up but what will you give me in return for this deed?"

"I don't know. Money?"

Money is nothing to my kind and I...Wait a minute I know you." The hag said looking at Frida with her good eye. "You're that human south spirit who beat my granddaughter and ruined her chances of being with that tiger nagual she loved."

"Granddaughter? What are you- Hold on you're Zoe's grandmother? Hmm looks like that apple doesn't fall far from the crazy tree."

"You cost my granddaughter a romantic relationship. Why in the world should I help you?"

"Okay first of all Manny didn't return her feelings and she agreed to the challenge so that's all on her. Second you have to help me. Please I'll give you anything."

"Anything?"

"Yes anything."

"Alright I want your youth and the beauty."

"My what?"

"You heard me. Your youth and beauty is the price for my services."

"That's a rip off if I ever heard one." Nigel said. "Here I've got something that you'll want more than that."

Nigel stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled out one of his teeth.

"The fang of the vision serpent."

"Oh now that's something." She said. "But this isn't your deal it's hers so that little tooth of yours won't do anything."

"What if I became her familiar? Would you be able to accept it?"

"I suppose."

Nigel turned to Frida.

"It's up to you Frida. Will you make me your new familiar?"

"I don't have any other choice." She said. "I'll make you my familiar."

"Wonderful." Nigel puckered his lips and leaned over to kiss her on the lips only to find himself kissing her hand as she stopped him.

"Not so fast you pervert. I think we'll do this through a blood signing."

"Very well."

He made the document and needle appear. Frida pricked her finger with the needle and let a drop of blood fall on to the document turning it into a contract of servitude. Nigel then pricked his finger and when his blood fell on to the contract it changed into his signature this making him her familiar. Once that was done Nigel traded his fang to the old xtabay in exchange for a potion that made her throw up the medal of everlasting life.

"I wonder how this thing ended up in my stomach." Frida wondered. "I think I would remember swallowing a medal but I'll worry about it later. Right now I need to get to the land of the dead before Dia de Los Muertos ends. Let's go Nigel."

"Funny thing Frida heh...Heh...I don't know how to get there."

"What?! Crap! Now what am I going to do?"

"Well there is one thing we can try but it's a long shot."

"What?"

"We can try to contact La Muerte the spirit and keeper of heaven. She's not like Xibalba, she's kind and good and is always ready to help mortals but she's hard too contact."

"How do we contact her?"

"The best way to do it is to burn an offering by her statue in the cemetery."

"What kind of offering?"

"Well mortals usually do livestock like pigs and chickens but if you want her to make in appearance you'll have to take something very precious and burn it. Like a keepsake."

"But the only thing I have like that is a charm bracelet I got for my 5th birthday."

"That will do."

"But that was my mother's."

"That makes it extra valuable."

"But I...I can't. Can't I just I offer her a pig?"

"A pig is only good enough to earn her blessing. It's either the bracelet or you'll never see Manny again."

Frida sighed. She really didn't want to sacrifice her charm bracelet. It wasn't really worth much but it was a family heirloom and the very last thing she had to remind her of the family she had lost many years ago. But she loved Manny and she wouldn't let him suffer Xibalba's wrath.

"Alright."

She went back to her house, took the charm bracelet from her jewelry box, and went with Nigel to the cemetery. They approached the statue of La Muerte and Nigel lit a small fire. Frida clutched the bracelet to her heart and let the memories it symbolized replay in her mind one last time. It was her 5th birthday and her mother had decided to give her an antique silver bracelet with charms such as a heart, a cross, a dove, and a music note that been in their family for generations.

"It was my mother's and it was mine when I was younger and now it's yours." Her mother had told her. "Keep it with you always and you'll never forget how much I love you."

A tear streamed down her face at the memory and she threw the bracelet into the fire. Once it had finished burning in the flames La Muerte appeared in a golden light. She was very beautiful and her hair was light up with candles.

"Good day young mortal." She said in a gentle voice. "Why have you summoned me?"

Five minutes of explaining things later...

"I see so Xibalba is up to his old tricks again is he? Say no more I shall bring you to him."

"Thank you." Frida said.

"Come with me."

She held her hand out to Frida, she took it and the two went to the land of the dead. During the trip Frida found herself thinking about that woman Manny had loved in the past. How come he had never mentioned her? And how did he fall in love with her? She was human and he swore that he hated humans yet he fell in love with one. Also did he father that baby she was carrying?

"Is something wrong?" La Muerte asked her. "I sense that you are distressed."

"I was just thinking about Manny."

"Don't worry Xibalba hasn't done him any harm yet."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive and I'm sure that young man is awfully eager to see you."

"I don't think so. Manny doesn't exactly have the same feelings as I do."

"I know what you mean. Sometimes I doubt my husband's feelings for me but in the end I know that he loves me."

"Oh no Manny doesn't love me. He hates humans."

"Well that's not entirely true, he fell in love with a human woman once but it ended so badly for him."

"What happened?"

"Oh he loved her very much, more than own his life but she married another man. It broke his heart."

"Oh..." So that was why Manny didn't approve of human-creature relationships. It was because the human woman he loved broke his heart.

Speaking of which, at the moment Manny had escaped from the prison cell Xibalba had locked him in and was fighting him.

"Good grief being locked up in that pit you call a jail cell brought back many fond memories." Manny said. "You had a lot of nerve showing your face in front of Frida. Smart move as you know I will not conduct bloody business in front of her."

"Yes you're much more beastly than you were back in the graveyard." Xibalba said after receiving some nasty blows from Manny. "If that girl ever saw you like this she would become terrified of you."

"So you've met Frida?"

"We made a little wager. She would go find my medal and return it in exchange for you."

"That's so stupid! She is the only south spirit incapable of doing anything."

"That crazy girl is the south spirit?! I thought that she was your lover!"

Manny blushed then threw a skull at Xibalba's face.

"She is not my lover! She's my lady and mistress who I serve nothing more! And she is not some woman to be carelessly touched by sullied hands!"

"Manny!"

Frida came running into the palace and threw her arms around Manny. He blushed and froze at the close contact.

"Thank God you're alright." She smiled.

"Uh... You're too close." He said sweating.

"I don't care. I'm just so happy that you're okay."

"Rather affectionate for a girl who's not your lover huh?" Xibalba said. "Also I don't get it. Nothing about her says south spirit. All I see is a human girl, it's nonsense."

"Hello Darling." Xibalba jumped back in fear at the sudden appearance of La Muerte. "Would you care to explain why you have taken a living creature prisoner in the land of the dead my love?"

"I thought you were visiting your family." He said nervously. "I've missed you my sweet wife."

"Wife?!" Manny and Frida gasped.

"She's married to him?!" Frida cried.

"I did not see that coming." Manny said. "BTW she could do way better than him."

"Hey!" Xibalba shouted.

"I can't believe you're still going after that young tiger!" La Muerte scolded. "When you lost that medal you promised me that you wouldn't obsess over it! Did you forget about that sweetie?!"

"Of course not! I can explain!" Xibalba said. "That girl insisted on returning my medal isn't that right girl?!"

"Oh yeah." Frida said. "Here it is."

She pulled the medal from her skirt pocket and threw it to him.

"See dear? Everything's okay right?" Xibalba said.

"I'll deal with you later." She sneered at her husband before going to Manny and Frida. "I apologise for my husband's behavior the truth is this was more about his pride than that medal. To make amends I offer you this."

La Muerte opened her hand and Frida's charm bracelet appeared in her palm.

"My bracelet." She said.

"I'm flattered by your offering my dear but you shouldn't have had to give up something like this so I had it reassembled."

She handed it to Frida.

"Thank you." She said slipping it on her wrist. "Thank you so much."

"You're most welcome and now I shall have you both be sent back home safely."

She snapped her fingers and Manny and Frida were transported back home.

"As for you." La Muerte said turning to Xibalba. "You are in a lot of trouble."

"My love you must understand I only wanted my medal back. I didn't mean any real harm."

"Of course you didn't." She rolled her eyes then thought of Frida. "She looks just like her you know."

"Who?"

"Frida. She bears a remarkable resemblance to that human girl Manny fell in love with years ago."

"I thought Cristina was a redhead."

"She was but her eyes and her face are identical to Frida's...I wonder."

"Wonder what?"

"Nevermind. Time for your punishment my love."

"Oh no!"

...

"So you actually managed to find the medal of everlasting life." Manny told Frida when they came home.

"Yep and by the way you're welcome."

"If I may ask how did you pull it off?"

"With help from my new familiar."

"New familiar? What new familiar?"

"Okay don't get mad but I kind of made Nigel a familiar."

"WHAT?!"


End file.
